Rowland Genealogy Newsletter Issue #04 (Vol 2, No 1) — February 2021

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Hello All,

I’ve been busy in 2021 on the Rowland genealogy front. Today, I want to update you on:

• Research Activities (the four main areas  I’ve been working on)
• Recap of Goals for 2021 and Progress/Status
• New Articles
• New Documents (available as free downloads on the website)
• Most Wanted Update
• Free WikiTree Help
• Centenarians

Research Activities

DNA Group H – Early Johnston and Wake Counties, NC:  I have increased the quantity of WikiTree profiles in this group from 43 to 219.  William Rowland, who died in 1794 in Wake County, is the earliest known ancestor of this line. Many descendants remain in North Carolina, while some migrated to Calloway County, Kentucky, and became a quite large branch.

Undefined DNA Group – Berks County, Pennsylvania:  Roland families have been in and around Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, since the mid-1700s, perhaps earlier.  For many generations, the primary occupation among family members was making hats, or hatters.  Many Roland families still live there today, while others migrated westward to Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.  Two new publications in our free downloads (see below) deal with this line.  The eldest known member of this line is David Roland, who died in 1820 and had eleven children born from 1760 to 1780.  David now has more than 340 descendants documented on WikiTree, of which more than 115 carry his Y-DNA.  If you are a male Roland descendant of this group, then please consider joining our Rowland Xref Project.

DNA Group I – Early locations in PA/OH:  This is one of the larger DNA groups with a dozen kits, but it is also one of the more confusing ones.  There are at least five different brick-wall ancestors in WikiTree among the test takers.  A leading cause is that many records prior to 1850 become less available and less reliable the further they stretch back into time.  This group is sometimes referred to as the Gasper/Casper Roland (1721-1809) Group, but there are also branches where the earliest known ancestor is Johannes Jacob “Hanes” Roland (1691-1763), Henry Roland (1785-1849), James Rolen (b. 1770), and Jeremiah Rowland (1833-1863).  Adding further confusion is the fact that some members of DNA Group D believe they are descendants of Gasper.  However, the DNA says that both cannot be true.  We are currently searching for any available documentation on these ancestral lines.

Ancestors of Jeremiah Rowland: Mentioned in the preceding paragraph, Jeremiah was born in 1833 and was killed in 1863 at Port Hudson, Louisiana during the Civil War.  I am currently trying to help one of his descendants find out who Jeremiah’s parents are.  Jeremiah was a resident of Arkansas at the time of his death, leaving a widow, three young sons, and a daughter.  The only clue, besides his Y-DNA, as to who his parents are is the 1860 census, which states he was born in Alabama.  I’m trying to identify other descendants of Jeremiah’s parents using autosomal DNA, but they would be 5^th cousins, and likely out of range autosomal DNA.

Recap of Goals for 2021

Our overriding goal for 2021 is to make it a banner record-breaking year in all categories.  Specific goals include:

• Grow the Rowland surname database on WikiTree to 17,000 (an increase of 3,453)
• Grow the quantity of Y-DNA test-takers in the FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) Rowland Project from 137 to 160 (nearly two per month)
• Increase the 15% of Y-DNA test takers with their latest pre-1900 ancestor identified to 50%
• Increase the 12% of Y-DNA test takers that are known to the Xref Project to 50%
• Increase the 4% of Y-DNA test takers that are linked on WikiTree to 20%
• Increase the quantity of free downloadable genealogy documents from 17 to 30
• Reorganize the Xref Project pages and have a unique page for each DNA group
• Build out ancestral and descendant trees for our “famous” Rowland ancestors and identify which DNA Group they belong to

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Progress Toward 2021 Goals

With two months down and ten to go, our percentage of goal attainment (last column) would be about 17% in a perfect world.  However, I’m sure you are all aware the world is not perfect, especially when it comes to genealogy.  Although with DNA, we are moving the ball in the right direction.

Goal	YE-2020	2021 Goal	Status	% of Goal
WikiTree Profiles	13,547	17,000 (+3,453)	14,381 (+834)	24%
Y-DNA Kits	137	160 (+23)	137 (+1-1)	0%
# Kits Grouped	78	*	78	*
# Groups	12	*	12	*
Pre-1900 Ancestor	21 (15%)	50%	28 (+7)	20%
Known to Xref Project	16 (12%)	50%	24 (+8)	18%
Linked on WikiTree	6 (4%)	20%	8 (+2)	10%
Free Documents	17	30 (+13)	20 (+3)	23%
Group Pages	0	12 (100%)	2	17%

New Articles Posted

“Who’s Your Father”, published February 9, 2021, was contributed by guest author Tony Proctor and was originally published in December 2013 at Parallax View.  We all have cases where we have had difficulty identifying the father of a child. Usually, it was because no father was listed on the birth or baptism record. This small bit of research deals with a slightly different case where the father’s details were deliberately obfuscated.

New Documents in the Free Downloads

Two of the new documents recently added cover descendants of the Roland family of Berks County, Pennsylvania. In fact, there is some overlap between the two, with both covering Hiram Roland (born about 1834 in Berks County, died 1872 in Poweshiek County, Iowa).

• “The Binkley Family w/ Bloyer, Cheeseman, Cromwell, Morgan, Rittenour, Roland, Shaffer, Whisler”, compiled by Jonathan A Binkley, self-published 1984, Toledo, Ohio, 117 pages. The Roland section (pages 85 to 97) covers the Roland family starting in Berks County, Pennsylvania with Joseph Roland (1812-1868) and Catharine Haines (1816-1869).  They moved to Ogle County, Illinois in the 1860s.  Many relatives remained in Berks County, some settled in Ogle and other Illinois counties, while others continued their westward movements to Iowa and beyond.  The Roland section includes seven pages of text, including letters with first-hand accounts of life during the Civil War period.  There are six pages of family trees showing the multiple generations of the descendants of Joseph Roland and Catharine Haines.  The DNA Group for this family is currently unknown and has been temporarily categorized as DNA Group Berks (Berks County, Pennsylvania).
• “The Andrew Jackson Gross Genealogy” by William C Hall, self-published 1978, 121 pages.  A history of Andrew Jackson Gross, born in Pa., and all his descendants from Hardin Co., Ohio to Iowa and thence to all parts of the United States.  It covers the descendants of Stephen D Roland (1862-1912), son of Hiram Roland (1834-1872) and Welthy Scoville (1842-1932) of Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Stephen was born in Whiteside County, Illinois, married Frances Cordelia Gross (1865-1944) in 1886 at Poweshiek County, Iowa, and settled in Colorado about 1900. Stephen and Frances had six children, and their descendants are traced up through the 1970s.  The index contains more than 30 Roland entries.  The DNA Group for this family is currently unknown and has been temporarily categorized as DNA Group Berks (Berks County, Pennsylvania).

Most Wanted Update

“10 Most Wanted – December 2020” identifies the 10 most wanted Rowland DNA test-takers and genealogical data. 

1. Group F (Botetourt) – need genealogical information from group members.
2. Group I (Gasper Roland) – need genealogical information from group members.  Progress is being made, but the family connections between 1750 and 1850 need reliable sources.
3. Group J (Surry) – need genealogical information. This is another group in need of documentation for the 1750-1850 time period.
4. Shovel Works – need DNA test-takers.  There are believed to be many living male descendants of this group still living in the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania area.  We need to locate some and have them take a Y-DNA test.
5. Orkney Islands – I have learned from the Orkney Project administrator at FamilyTreeDNA that there are no longer any Rowlands in the Orkney Islands (extinct in his words). We do know many descendants of this line migrated to Canada, and DNA test takers are needed.  I joined the Orkney Project to be able to monitor if any Rowlands joined the group.  However, the administrator has since revoked my membership since I am not a Orkney descendant.
6. Derbyshire – need test takers. No progress made.
7. Ruland – need test takers. No progress made.
8. Sleigh Rowland Cutlers – need additional test takers. Currently a “group” of one.
9. Essex – need additional test takers.  This is still a “group” of one.
10. Arthur Ray Rowland – need copies of his research. I was able to contact his daughter and she suggested libraries (he is a noted librarian and tried to ensure his work could be found there).  However, most libraries are closed due to the pandemic, so getting pdf copies is still preferred.

Free WikiTree Help

I am convinced that WikiTree’s vast richness of tools, its policy of a single profile per ancestor, and its pledge to remain free making it the best choice for documented tree building.  I’m also aware that WikiTree can be somewhat daunting to newcomers, especially those without prior experience with document markup language techniques.  Therefore, I will help get you started by connecting you (or your recent Rowland/Roland ancestors) to the global tree.  Please note that I will not add living people to the tree.  That is something you will need to do so that you can control the privacy level.  If this is of interest to you, then please email rowlandgenealogy@gmail.com with your ancestral information. Note: if you already have a public tree documented on another site, then I can work with that.

The Centenarians

Rowland Genealogy created a new list of centenarians – those that spent more than 100 years living on planet Earth.  It is currently a rather short list with just four names, and William Alfred “Al” Rowland (1912-2017) holds the top spot, living 104 years.

Share and Share a Like

As stated earlier, improving the awareness of our existence is key to our goals for 2021.  You can help by forwarding 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.

Following us on Facebook may be the easiest way to keep abreast of new articles and activities between issues of the newsletter.  To do so, simply “like” the Rowland Genealogy Facebook page.

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Ron Rowland
Editor & Publisher

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