House Willis

Our Ancestors

Ancestory is the part of culture that began my interest in preserving and developing our family heritage. I can clearly remember building our family tree diagram and the excitement that grew within me as I traced back each successive generation and added a new set of names to the tree. As the tree grew and I read a little about our ancestor's birthplaces, travels, and settlements, the tremendous importance of heritage became apparent to me. Though I'm often soothed to think about the ultimate insignificance of our lives within the context of the universe, I must admit that the knowledge of belonging to something greater than myself is comforting in a primal and instinctive manner.

Our family is mostly of Western European descent. Looking mainly at the lineages of my parents and those of my wife's - Willis', Pfaff's, Pietrzak's, and Rishel's, we are of Scottish, German, and Polish, descent. My father also recalls that we have some Cherokee Indian ancestry.

My father's lineage, though not as well documented as my mother's, has it's roots traced back to Scotland. I'm currently researching his lineage, and hope to fill in many of the gaps in his family's origins. A more detailed history of that part of our lineage can be found on the House Willis Culture page. I give special thanks to Elizabeth Harris for helping me begin my research on the Willis family.

My mother's lineage, the Pfaff and Conrad families, is documented quite well. It's roots can be traced very clearly back to Germany. Further insight into our German origins can also be found on the House Willis Culture page. I must credit Margie B. Seymour for her book "Descendants of Johann Daniel Pfaff and Anna Barbara Hartung Pfaff", and Faye Jarvis Moran and Elizabeth Harris for their website, "The Jarvis Family and Other Relatives"", documenting the Pfaff and Conrad lineages, as well as many of the other prominent families of Forsythe County, North Carolina.

The Pietrzak family, my wife's father's lineage, is Polish in origin. From what I've heard, their ancestry is well documented also, and will be added soon to the Willis family tree. The Rishel family lineage, my wife's mothers side, is German in origin. I have no idea as to how well their family line has been documented, but we'll soon find out.

The diagram of our family tree is constantly growing. The process alone of researching and adding new roots and branches has been extremely rewarding...

Matthew Raymond Willis