Lineage:Willius

Willius is a German family with origins in the city of Kassel that can be attested from the middle of the 18th Century. It is presumed that this form of the surname is a Latinisation of another name, which is in keeping with the styles and trends of upwardly mobile and newly wealthy Germans of the period. Theories posit that the original name may be Wille, Wilhelm, Will, or even the French De Villiers, but to date no evidence has been discovered that would firmly indicate an origin. The recorded male lines of the family both ended up in the United States, and while the surname still exists in Germany, any connection, if there is one, between these extant German branches and the more comprehensively recorded American lines is unknown.