Ancestors of Gordon Lenroot Willis and Beatrice Lillian Pugh

This page is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Lenroot Willis and his wife Beatrice Lillian Pugh whose tireless efforts in genealogical research led to the preservation of the information contained on this web site. One of Gordon and Bea's biggest fears was that the family would drift apart and forget their heritage after their death. My hope is that the web will help us stay close and facilitate even greater communication.

Originally, the Willis Family Genealogy traced the descendants of Joseph Willis and Sarah Thurgood through their son John Willis who was born in 1794 in Stebbing, Essex, England. Thanks to the efforts of several people we can now trace our ancestry from Joseph's great-grandparents John and Elizabeth Willows who were born in the mid 1600's. We also know that Sarah's parents were John Thorowgood and Sarah Parish.

Joseph and Sarah's grandson John Willis married Mary Ann Bloomfield in 1852 and they had two sons, George and Joseph. (Mary Ann was the widow of John Chittock.) They immigrated to the United States in 1864 aboard the sailing vessel "The Hudson" which left from the London Docks. After arriving in the United States they continued westward by train. A familiar sight along the way was Indian smoke signals on the barren hills. A railroad bridge at Hannibal was set on fire; however, the train tore across the river before the bridge collapsed. John reported that, "About July 15, 1864, a train was fired at by the soldiers and one of the cars caught fire. Many times, usually at night, the officers came through the train searching for deserters. We were forced to see much bloodshed, disease, hate and fear."

So began their life in a new country. The full story and more information can be found in the pages located here.

Table of Contents