Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Allis
Variants: Allice, Alliss, Alys
Category: 2 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way, but currently in some countries only.
Guild hosted website: allis.one-name.net
Contact: Mr David Want
The study was started after finding a number of disconnected families in Lincolnshire, England which is where my Allis family comes from. It was thought that they may have a single point of origin but this may not be the case. The Allis family in Nettleham, Lincolnshire is seen as far back as 1523.
Other families in England also do not apparently have a single origin and may be due to migration here over a long period of time.
A number of documents have been viewed which suggests a low-level, wide-area distribution in south and central England going back to the time of Domesday Book. How the name reached Scotland and Ireland is still to be investigated.
The study has so far followed the name in England and Wales and out to Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada.
Allis is the most common spelling with Alliss coming next. In England Alliss was used most in the south of Lincolnshire and also in Kent.
However, in earlier times any spelling that sounded right was used, so Allice, Alice, Alles, Allys are fairly common variants, with Alys being the most popular seen in a number of early documents. At present I am not sure about Allies and Alleys which was very common in Essex and would be happy to have opinions on that.
A few crossovers with Ellis has also been seen where the name has been changed over time, in both directions.
The Allis, Alliss, Allice and other related names are not that common. In 2002 for England 267 Allis names were recorded and a further 110 for Alliss. A survey of surnames in the USA for the year 2000 records 1,234 Allis and 159 Alliss.
https://allis-links.blogspot.co.uk/