Rowland Genealogy Newsletter Issue #13 (Vol 4, No 2) — December 2023

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Hello Rowland Genealogists,

In this issue, we look at life beyond genealogy, year-end DNA sales, a request for help, Montgomery-Fulton County New York, Rowland Pennsylvania, Thomas Fitch Rowland, and Rowland DNA Group E.

It has been a while since the last issue of the newsletter, but as they say, “sometimes life gets in the way” of our research activities.  One item I have been fighting is the hacking and disabling of my Facebook account.  I’m not talking about a simple temporary suspension – Facebook disabled my account and deleted all traces of my existence.  You can read about this on my personal website in the article Facebook Murdered and Erased Me.  Then, to make matters worse, I was scammed by so-called “account recovery” services.  That story is told in Facebook-Meta Found Guilty of Enabling Scammers.

You can probably tell by the tone of these articles that I am more than just a little perturbed.  They also deleted every one of my Facebook Messenger chats, so any communications I may have had with you via that avenue are also gone.  Our Rowland Genealogy Facebook page is still there but I am no longer able to post to it because my administrator privileges were also deleted. Additionally, any comments or additions I made to the page from my personal account are now gone.

…and speaking of “life getting in the way” distractions, I recently bought a 3D printer, which seems to be chewing up all of my free time.  Anyway, I believe it’s time to get to the genealogy portion of this newsletter…

Year-End DNA Sales

All the major DNA testing firms and genealogy sites will be having year-end promotions, and most have already started.

• FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) currently has all of its Y-DNA test kits on sale here.  The Y-37, Y-111, and the Big Y-700 tests are the only way to determine in which Rowland DNA Group you belong. 
• AncestryDNA has its autosomal test kits on sale for $59.  It is the only autosomal test you need because you can download the results and then upload them to other sites. These kits do not provide Y-DNA testing.

FTDNA Y-DNA and AncestryDNA are the only two DNA tests we recommend.  We are not affiliated with either company and receive no compensation in any form for making these recommendations.

There are three other websites we recommend to get the most out of your Rowland family research.  These sites are always free, so you never have to wait for a sale.

• FTDNA Rowland Project is where the Y-DNA analysis and grouping occurs, and it currently has 264 members.
• WikiTree for tree building on the single-family tree.  It now contains more than 20,000 profiles of our Rowland, Roland, Rowlands, and other spelling-variant ancestors.  Have you entered your profile and connected to your ancestors?
• Rowland Genealogy is where we try to bring it all together.

Your Help is Requested

WikiTree has numerous exciting features, and it would take me hours (or days) to point them all out.  However, today I want to focus on just one – the Y-DNA propagation feature.  WikiTree does not perform any DNA testing services, although it does provide DNA connection analysis based on the connections in the tree.

For Y-DNA, this means all of our male ancestors carrying the same Y-DNA can be identified in the DNA Connections portion of their individual profiles. However, this works only if at least one person within a given Y-DNA group has entered their FTDNA Y-DNA kit number in their profile.

I encourage all of you with Y-DNA test results to do so. Here are the steps:

1. Go to your WikiTree profile page.
2. Click on “DNA” in the drop-down menu that has your WikiTree ID as the header (at the top of the page to the right of “My WikiTree”).
3. Click on the “DNA Tests” button.
4. Click on “add a new test” (to the right of the Current Test List).
5. Select “FTDNA Y-Chromosome” from the drop-down menu and fill out the optional data boxes.  Although these are “options”, the one labeled “Family Tree DNA kit number” may be required for this feature to work as stated.  This needs to be your Y-DNA kit number—do not use your FTDNA Family Finder kit number.
6.  Click “Add Test”.
7. After about 24 hours, this information will be propagated to every other male profile in your paternal Rowland line as well as all of their male Rowland descendants.  In my particular case, there are 817 profiles identified as belonging to Rowland DNA Group B.

Montgomery-Fulton County, New York

We added a new grouping to our DNA Untested page.  The earliest known ancestors were born in Northampton Township, Montgomery County, New York in the late 1700s.  This township became part of Fulton County when it was formed in 1838.  Some sources suggest these Rowland families are part of Rowland DNA Group E, but additional research is required.

The earliest known ancestors:

• Samuel Rowland (c1795- c1843) was born in Montgomery County New York about 1795 and died in about 1843 (Fulton County). Stephen Rowland (1795-1869) was born in Montgomery County New York about 1795 and died in 1869 (Fulton County). They are probably brothers as they were listed next to each other in the 1820, 1830, and 1840 census reports.
• 118 descendants in WikiTree (as of 04 Dec 2023)
• Descendant locations:  Michigan (Kent, Montcalm), New York (Erie, Fulton, Hamilton), Texas (Edwards, Tom Green), Wisconsin (Milwaukee)

Rowland, Pennsylvania

Rowland, Pennsylvania is a small unincorporated community located in Lackawaxen Township, Pike County, Pennsylvania.  It is just 5 miles west of the Delaware River and the New York state border, 90 miles northwest of New York City, and 150 miles north of Philadelphia.

The town is named for George H Rowland (1827-1895) who was the first resident of the hamlet and opened the Rowland General Store in 1852 in a building that also housed the Rowland post office.  Today, that structure is still standing and it is now known as the Rowland Cooperative.

The area is often called “Little Norway” because of the many Norwegian immigrants who settled there some 50 years after George’s arrival.

George went on to serve in the Pennsylvania State Legislature from 1862 to 1872 and the State Senate from 1872 to 1875.  He returned to the Senate in 1885 when he was tapped to fill a vacancy.

George’s ancestry is well-documented back to the mid-1700s and then discrepancies begin to appear regarding earlier generations.  Some sources claim he is a descendant of Henry Rowland (c1625-1691), which would make him part of Rowland DNA Group E.  Other sources claim his ancestors came from Ireland in 1720 and settled in Dutchess County New York.

Thomas Fitch Rowland (1831-1907)

Thomas Fitch Rowland (1831-1907) is a new addition to our Famous Rowlands page. He was an American engineer and shipbuilder. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he founded Continental Iron Works in 1861. The firm built ironclad warships for the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. His most notable ship was the USS Monitor, which defeated the Confederate CSS Virginia in the 1862 Battle of Hampton Roads.

The Thomas Fitch Rowland Prize is awarded annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for valuable contributions to construction management and construction engineering.

There are some discrepancies in his lineage with some sources claiming he is a descendant of Henry Rowland (c1625-1691) of Fairfield County Connecticut, which would make him part of Rowland DNA Group E.

Rowland DNA Group E

I didn’t do it intentionally, but halfway through the preparation of this newsletter, I realized that all three stories above had something in common.  They are about people believed to be descendants of Henry Rowland (c1625-1691) of Fairfield, Connecticut, which is Rowland DNA Group E. However, each one also has conflicting or unproven sources.

Hmmm, if only there was a way to determine if any of these three lines truly are descendants of Henry. Oh, wait, there is a way!!!  It’s called Y-DNA.  A Y-DNA test from one of the descendants would go a long way in providing a solution.

Recent Articles

Recent articles written and posted since the last issue of the newsletter include:

Did My Relative Beat Columbus? (published 06 Dec 2023). Guest author Nick Rowland contemplates the possibility that one of his ancestral relatives arrived in North America about 500 years before Columbus. Nick shares Y-DNA with VK184/F7, Viking remains found in Greenland. Did VK184/F7 also travel with Leif Erikson to the Viking settlement of Vinland, Newfoundland?

The Arrival of the Rowland and Workman Expedition, 5 November 1841 (published 05 Nov 2023). Guest author Paul R. Spitzzeri graciously contributed his article “On This Day: The Arrival of the Rowland and Workman Expedition, 5 November 1841” which was originally published seven years ago on 05 Nov 2016 at The Homestead Blog.  John Albert Rowland was the leader of this expedition and is part of Rowland DNA Group B.

Some History of the Rowland and Workman Expedition of 1841 (published 30 Oct 2023).  Guest author Paul R. Spitzzeri graciously contributed his article Sharing Some History of the Rowland and Workman Expedition of 1841 at the Old Spanish Trail Association National Conference, Riverside which was originally published on 22 Oct 2023 at The Homestead Blog.

First Look At Globetrekker (published 01 Aug 2023). FamilyTreeDNA (FTDNA) just released a new Big Y-DNA tool called Globetrekker, and today we take our first look. This article includes map snapshots for all Rowlnd DNA groups having at least one Big Y participant.

Rowland On The Road (Published 18 June 2023). Rowland Genealogy will be “closed” from June 20 to Jul 17, 2023, as Ron Rowland competes in the 2023 Great Race.  If you are curious about how I did, you can find out in the article 2023 Great Race: Team Windup Key.

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, make it the best choice for documented tree building.  I’m aware that WikiTree can be somewhat daunting to newcomers, especially those without prior experience with document markup language techniques. 

Therefore, I will help you get 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.

Subscribing to the Website

In addition to subscribing to this newsletter, it is also possible to subscribe to new posts on the website.  Doing so will enable you to receive an email notification each time we publish a new article.  To accomplish this, go to the Rowland Genealogy website.  Then, if you are on a desktop computer, in the right-hand sidebar area, just below the “Subscribe to Rowland Genealogy Newsletter” widget is the “Subscribe to website” widget.  If you are on a smartphone, then you will need to scroll down to near the bottom of the page to see the “Subscribe to website” widget.

Share and Share a “Like”

Improving the awareness of our existence is one of our key goals.  You can help by forwarding this newsletter to family and friends who may find it of interest.  If you received this newsletter from someone else, then you can sign up to get future issues directly at Rowland Genealogy Newsletter.

Past Newsletters: You can access all of our past issues in the Rowland Genealogy Newsletter Archives.

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Ron Rowland
Editor & Publisher

PS – I welcome your suggestions for improvements, features, topics, and website restructuring. Please let me know of any errors, inconsistencies, or additional Rowland/Roland lines.