#02 (Vol 1, No 2) - November 2020

In this issue of the Rowland Genealogy Newsletter: An invitation to my live virtual presentation, Xref Project Groups updated, a Rebellious Rowland, and more.

Virtual Live Presentation, November 10

You are invited to attend my live virtual presentation on Tuesday, November 10, at 7 pm eastern (apologies to subscribers living in UK and Australian time zones). My presentation, “The Accidental One-Name Study: What Can Happen With No Preconceptions,” describes how the RowlandGenealogy website came to be. The Guild of One-Name Studies, as part of their USA-Midwest Social, will be hosting the presentation. To attend, just join the meeting from your computer, tablet, or smartphone at (expired link removed).

If you have not used or installed the GoToMeeting application on your computer, then please allow yourself extra time to get the application installed and running before the meeting begins.

Rowland Xref Project Groups Updated

Jamie Fish, administrator of the Rowland DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA), has updated the Group naming and labeling of the various Rowland Y-DNA lines. FTDNA uses an alphabetical method of displaying the various groups, and now each group has been assigned a letter of the alphabet so that their order of display will not change over time. The Xref Project group names have been updated to coincide:

Group A – Shenandoah Virginia area
Group B – Early Chester County, PA, 1762
Group C – Granville Co. NC/Simpson Co. KY
Group D – Iowa/PA/NC
Group E – Early CT-NY Locations
Group F – Early Botetourt Co., VA
Group G – Connection unknown
Group H – Early Johnston/Wake Co. NC
Group I – Early Locations in PA/OH (Germanic)
Group J – Colonial Surry Co., VA area
Group K – Jeremiah E Roland 1833-1863 AL
Group L – England William b 1795 to Canada
Ungrouped

We are looking into creating some single-member groups for large ancestral lines. This should help identify where we are in need of additional test takers.

I encourage all Rowland males to take a Y-DNA test and enter a few generations of their family tree on WikiTree. Here are the details on How To Participate in the Rowland Xref Project.

The quantity of Rowland profiles on WikiTree continues to grow, recently surpassing 14,000.

New Article Posted

‘’DNA Ancestry Heritage Tests Are A Complete Farce’’ was published on October 17. It is Part II of my DNA Case Study, and it focuses on the heritage/ethnicity reports provided by the DNA testing companies. It was originally part of the “DNA Testing: A Case Study With Staggering Conclusions” (Part I) article, but it needed to be broken out and expanded when Ancestry changed my Scottish heritage from 9% to 52%. If you cannot tell by the title, I have little faith in what the DNA testing companies are claiming to know about my heritage. The previous article, Part I, now deals exclusively with the DNA matching capabilities of the DNA testing companies, which is where these companies excel.

New Products in the Free Downloads

The “store” has been renamed “Free Downloads” and downloading is now an easy one-click operation. New products recently added include:

“The William Rowland Family (of Edgar IL)” by O. Clif. Winans, published 1965, 171 pages. This traces the genealogy of William Rowland Sr (1796-1882), born in Somerset County, New Jersey, and died in Edgar County, Illinois. It includes an introduction of his siblings, father John Rowland of New Jersey, and provides a brief discussion of other early American Rowland families. William had three marriages, with eight children born in Hamilton County, Ohio by his first wife, five children born in Ohio and Illinois by his second wife, and one child with his third wife in Edgar County.
“DeHaven-Ward-Luke and Related Families (including Rowland)”, by Miriam Luke, published 1985, 238 pages. Most of this work focuses on the settlers of Fountain County, Indiana, but it traces the Rowland line back to Maryland. The Rowland ancestral line includes Dr. Thomas Rowland (1810 Louden, VA – 1864 Fountain, IN), George Rowland (1784-1814) a War of 1812 veteran, Thomas Rowland (1745 Charles, MD – 1809 Frederick, MD), and George Rowling (1720-1782) of Prince George’s County, Maryland.

A Rebellious Rowland?

I came across a Find-A-Grave memorial for a person named Rebelius Rowland. Naturally, I was curious about this fellow who was buried in Reno, Nevada in 1934. Being somewhat rebellious myself from time to time, I had to find out more. However, my research led to disappointment when I learned his real name was Redellium Henry Rowland, born in Mississippi about 1879. I have not sent a correction to Find-A-Grave, although now I am curious as to who would name their child Redellium.

DNA Test Holiday Sales

DNA testing companies are currently offering steep discounts on DNA testing. For Y-DNA testing, I recommend FamilyTreeDNA, and they are offering Y-DNA tests for $99 through November 24. For autosomal DNA, I recommend AncestryDNA, and their test is on sale for $59 through November 25. These companies will likely be offering Christmas specials also, but by purchasing and testing early, you can get your results much quicker by getting in front of the testing backlog that occurs after Christmas.

Please forward this email newsletter to family and friends that may find it of interest. If you received this newsletter from someone else, then you can sign up to get future issues directly at the Rowland Genealogy Newsletter sign-up page.

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Ron Rowland
Editor & Publisher

PS – I welcome your suggestions for improvements, features, and topics.