Wells Family Research Association Info Page

What is
The Wells Family Research Association?

The Wells Family Research Association was founded in 1988 with two primary objectives:

  1. To serve as a repository for Wells information for all Wells family researchers the world over.

  2. To enable Wells researchers with interests in the same lines to more easily find each other and to share information.

One of our most important projects is the on-going Wells DNA Project in which more than 1,000 descendants of various Wells families have been tested, often with significant assistance in finding ancestral families. This project is currently operating under Family Tree DNA. We encourage you to read the information on this site related to that DNA project and consider joining that effort and having your DNA tested, especially if you are or have a male relative who carries the Wells surname.

At it's peak, the Association had nearly 600 active members with the membership residing in the US, Canada Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Nearly 700 researchers have been members of the Association since its founding and we have information on and from over 5,300 researchers with interests in Wells family research.

The Association is building a large Wells research database which consists of:

Linked family groups constructed from the material submitted by members, correspondents, our own research efforts and virtually any research source that yields such information.

An index to numerous publications including our own The Wells Chronicles, another Wells newsletter Wells Researcher, a 1970's newsletter The Wells Family Research Bulletin and a growing number of published and unpublished Wells genealogies.

An index containing the ancestors extracted from thousands of Wells related family group sheets acquired from members and other sources. This is the source of the material published in April 1996 as the International Wells Research Index.

A database of family researchers from around the world who are interested in any Wells line. Currently, this database contains over 5,700 names. This is used as a resource to help connect new researchers who contact the association with others who have a similar interest (whether members or not) and for the association to communicate to them when we find some material that links to their line(s) of interest.

All of this information is used to help answer inqueries from members and others as well as to continue the primary project of building the linked family records in the database. We have hundreds of thousands of entries currently in the system, but we still have a very long way to go.

The Association published a (sometimes) quarterly newsletter titled The Wells Chronicles which typically carried 28 pages of compacted information on Wells with regular columns "Wells History", "Wells Heraldry", "Early American Wells", "Queries", "US Wells", "Canadian Wells", "English Wells", "Australian Wells", "New Zealand Wells".

It was the objective of this publication to circulate as much material on Wells from various sources as possible to assist Wells family researchers in their research efforts. Due to the limited involvement in the production of the newsletter and the level of effort to produce it, its publication was not always quarterly and the final issue was published March 1997 with Vol. 6 #7.

The association also acquired CD-ROM sources as funding permitted to help build our base of information and to serve as a resource for members who do not have access to this material.

Project 26 Our current project is to organize, digitize and deposit the massive collection of Wells genealogical information in an archive where it will live on for future researchers to be able to search for their ancestors. Volunteers are welcome to assist us in this massive effort.

This archive will contain everything we can find that relates to any Wells. This will eventually be made available to anyone with an interest.

Paid membership in the Association is no longer avaliable. But willing volunteers and contributions from Wells genealogists is always welcome as long as our Project 26 is in progress.

Anyone interested in assisting may obtain information by e-mailing Wells Family Research Association
OrinWells@wells.org

Or by writing to the address below:

Wells Family Research Association
P. O. Box 5427
Kent, WA 98064-5427

Whether you chose to volunteer or assist with our current project or not, we encourage you to send us your family information for inclusion in our database and matching to existing information. Although we would like to have you send this in Family Group Sheet or GEDCOM computer file format, any format you have the information in currently is acceptable including handwritten pages. We suggest you provide as complete information on dates, locations and relationships as possible to help us identify the individuals and best help you in your research efforts. It is often a sibling or child or in-law of an ancestor that provides the critical link in discovering more information.

If you have Wells information you have gathered that is not related to your family, we would like to invite you to send it to us for our constantly growing Wells information collection and library. We would also invite you to send us copies of information you have found on your own Wells family. We are particularly interested in copies of source documentation such as bible records, land records, wills and other documents.

The Association does NOT currently have facilities or staff to conduct individual research for members or others for pay or otherwise. We do make a continuous effort to distribute Wells Research information, to match members with new information from other researchers and to put members in contact with others researching their families as we become aware of them.

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Last revised 1/12/2026

e-mail:  Wells Family Research Association
OrinWells@wells.org