For those that worry about the future or spend most of their time in the here and now, thinking about the past may hold little interest.  For a few of us, knowing our family history helps to provide an anchor point and a strong feeling of belonging in a progression of life that has a deep meaning.  The work of our fathers and mothers to care for us instills a love of family.  It is our love of FAMILY that, in the final analysis, provides the reason for our daily toil.  We all work to provide food and shelter for the family and we all live the same basic dream, to make the world a better place for our sons and daughters.

This website is simply a place to exhibit some of the things that I have learned about the family that gave me life.

Christopher Alan Otis, July, 2009

The Otis Book

The vast bulk of the very early ‘Otis’ family data generally comes from a single book, A Genealogical and Historical Memoir of the Otis Family in America, published in 1924 by William A. Otis.  This book and the research to make it was a vast undertaking in a day when there were no computers to record data, when there was no email, no internet.  Much of the data, like the US Census records of the time, was handwritten and subject to misspelling, miss-interpretation and worse.  Letters were sent out and not all of the families contacted chose to respond.  Responses were not always complete.  We have found many errors in the book when it relates more recent data, data that can be verified.  Yet, it is the best we have and is the most complete work on the family genealogy in existence.  It begins with Richard O. Otis, born in 1550 in Glastonbury, England.  My father is in the book as he was born some five years prior to its publication.  His birthday year is incorrect.

NOTE: I have both an original printing of the ‘Otis’ book that my father had rebound and I also have a hardcover bound photocopy of the book which I prefer for daily use.  The photocopy book can be obtained from Higginson Book Company.  See http://www.higginsonbooks.com/genot001h.html.