This website is about my ancestors and the primary audience is therefore my immediate family and researchers of those families that make up my ancestry. My goal is to preserve and share the information that I have collected and to document to some degree where and how I have obtained this information.
Although I have entitled this HOLLIS HISTORY, it will include as many of my paternal and maternal family lines as I have been able to track. Some of the most recent family lines on my father's side are Hollis, Jackson, Combs, Davis, Dorris, Colley and Callaway; On my mother's side, they are Blair, Bailey, Ledbetter, Miller and Verner. For a full listing of all the families that I am researching, see the link above entitled FAMILIES.
There are several things in common for most of my American ancestors: They were mostly Ulster Scots-Irish and English settlers who came to America in the 1600s and 1700s and settled in the Eastern Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Washington, DC areas. This was Colonial America. Many followed the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania into VA, NC and SC. A large number of these families were in Virginia just prior to the Revolutionary War and they moved South following the war. In fact, on almost every line that I have researched, there is a Revolutionary War veteran (Patriot) who fought in the Southern Campaign of that war in places like Kings Mountain, Camden, Kettle Creek and Cowpens and wound up settling in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia after the war. They were among the very first non-native American settlers in places like Pendleton, Abbeville, Fairfield and Chester, South Carolina. They also settled in Wilkes County, Georgia. Some have coined my ancestors as "backwoods pioneers" since they were not living in the cities such as Savannah and Charleston but were in the woods trading with the Indians in the most remote areas of the South. They settled along the upper part of the Savannah River in places like Pendleton District, South Carolina, where they were adjoining landowning neighbors to Revolutionary War heros Colonel Benjamin Cleveland and General Andrew Pickens. They were also neighbors to John C. Calhoun the famous South Carolina politician and later donor of the land that would become Clemson University. In Fairfield County, South Carolina, my Hollis ancestors lived close to Revolutionary War hero General Richard Winn.
Since these families were among the first non-native American families to settle in America, my own history closely follows the history of America as it developed. In many cases, the families intermarried quite a bit so I am related to a lot of the people who shaped this country and the southern states in particular. In addition to numerous Revolutionary War ancestors, I have found veterans in every war this country has fought. And since my family has such deep roots to the south, it follows that my ancestors were heavily involved with slavery and the Civil War. This time period and the Civil War in particular are still being debated (and probably will be forever) so my own personal opinion would serve no purpose here. Suffice to say that the southern states and people of these states bore monumentally heavy personal and financial loss and my own ancestors were not excluded; In fact, many were deeply involved in the policy making and war effort.
My own Hollis line can be traced to Fairfax, Virginia in the early to mid 1700s where my 6th great grandfather operated an Ordinary on the Ravensworth Estate (most of modern day Annandale) that was owned by the Fitzhugh family. I have found his name mentioned in the historic Pohick Church vestry minutes alongside notables such as George Washington and Lord Fairfax. Take a look at the page entitled NOTABLE FAMILY to see more of these connections. I have been amazed by these discoveries - My own immediate family was neither "well off" or "well connected".
I also refer you to research the Ulster Scots-Irish story as told in literally hundreds of books on the subject. My own family, especially my maternal side, are largely Scots-Irish immigrants that settled Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, NC, SC and GA.
Also, regarding the Scots-Irish and in particular the Ulster Presbyterian Scots-Irish, I have recently found an ancestor that arrived in America from Ulster in 1774 and immediately fought in the American Revolution as a Patriot and died as a result of wounds received at the Battle of Monck's Corner in South Carolina (near Charleston). This man's story and the story of his descendants mirrors the Ulster Scots-Irish struggle and the impact they have made on our country. His descendants went on to become pioneer families in DeKalb, Cobb and Paulding Counties in Georgia.
This is a work in progress so check back frequently as I will be adding content as I have the time - Click on the FOLLOW BY EMAIL link below to receive automatic notifications when information has been added/updated. NOTE: I have just learned that only certain areas that I update will have auto-notification; Most of the documents and supporting pages and links will not have auto-notification (this is a limitation of the blog platform). So if you don't receive an update notification for a few weeks, be sure to check back anyway to view the new content that I have uploaded as I am adding and updating almost every week.
If you have questions or suggestions, contact me using the CONTACT form below.
William Hollis
November 2016
Atlanta, GA
MBA, Clemson University
BS, University of S.Carolina
This page was updated on 3/29/2017