This is where you can ask your questions about Rowland Genealogy, DNA testing, or genealogy in general. I will not always have the answer, but hopefully I can at least point you in the right direction.
You may want to see if your question has already been asked and answered on our FAQ page.
Post your questions in the comment section below, and feel free to add your answer to any of the questions posed by others.
Ron,
I was recently exploring a branch of my family tree on my father’s side, which involved the Pembertons. John Rowland married a Scollis Pemberton in 1615, and their son, also named John, came to Jamestown around 1635. Interestingly, the Pembertons have their own DNA website, and I noticed the tests were mostly haplogroup R-M269. I see that there are quite a few tests on the Rowland DNA website that also have haplogroup R-M269. Any idea where the connection might be?
Jim Rowland
Hello Jim,
Unfortunately, having haplogroup R-M269 does not tell you very much. More than half of the Rowland Y-DNA test-takers are in R-M269 or one of its sub-branches. Halpogroup R-M269 represents a person that lived on earth in about the year 4350 BC. That was more than 6,300 years ago and about 5,500 years before anyone had a surname.
The Rowland Haplotree V 1.0 illustrates this with R-M269 visible in the light blue shaded box near the upper left-hand corner.
The percentage of Rowland males in various haplogroups is discussed further in our 2022 Statistics report.
Your should note that the Rowland-Pemberton line you asked about is believed to be Rowland DNA Group J, which is not a subgroup of R-M269. In fact, it is the furthest removed DNA group with the earliest known common ancestor living about 45,000 BC (47,000 years ago).
Additionally, Y-DNA is only passed down through the males, so none of the Rowland-Pemberton descendants have Pemberton Y-DNA.
For more information about R-M269, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R-M269
Ron,
Thank you so much for making this website available. It is awesome. David R. Roland (born 1742-1820) is my 4x Great grandfather. I was looking for his father. I thought it might have been Frederic Roland but I have not sources to back that up. My family has had stories that have been “passed down” through generations about the Rowland/Roland family name. I am not sure if these are true or not. I am hoping you or anyone who might know more details can help me. This is the “story” . I was told by my father and my father’s cousin (another family source) that when the Roland’s (Rowland’s) came to the U.S. That they changed their name form Rowland to Roland. The Legend is that The Roland/Rowland (male) that came to America had been a priest at one time and wanted to get married. He had left the Catholic church because they did not permit him to marry. He decided to immigrate to America (not sure if he got married in Germany area here in US) He moved to the Reading PA area and had changed his name from Rowland to Roland. Can you help me with this? Was wondering if anyone has heard about this or might know anything about this “story” that has been passed down.
Nancy Roland Douglas
Hi Nancy,
I believe this is the David Roland you are referring to: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roland-1737
He and his descendants are covered in: https://rowlandgenealogy.com/roland-family-hatters-of-reading-pennsylvania/
This is the first I have ever heard of families purposely removing the “w” from the Rowland name. Roland is the predominante spelling throughout Germany (and central Europe), so Germans coming to North America generally have no “w” to remove. Ruhland and similar variants are/were also common in Germany.
I once came across an article that discussed the adding of a “w” to the Rowland name in England and Scotland as a means of distinguishing/separating themselves from people on the continent. However, I have not been able to locate that article again or any sources that allude to this subject.
I am of the belief that nearly all spelling changes (variants) of surnames were the result of illiteracy, but there are bound to be exceptions.
BTW, do you have a brother, father, or other living Roland male in your family that would be willing to take a Y-DNA test so that we can place the Berks County Pennsylvania line in its appropriate DNA Group? It is currently in the Untested group: https://rowlandgenealogy.com/dna-group-untested/#berks-county-pennsylvania
Recently I received a query from a Morgan fammily member in Arkansas, his Y DNA and My Y DNA matched perfectly, but we could find any logical match in either line to indicate why the match was perfect. He knew his grandfather’s birth was in Question and it was thought that a female had married two different Rowlands — William Granville and Samuel S and had daughters with both. However neither of these Rowland DNA lines show up anywhere in my searches. The story was the grandfather’s birth was an out of wed lock birth and the older of the two Rowland sisters had actually been the birth mother but gave the baby to the younger sister, each sister had a different Rowland father. Genealogy has traced the grandfather down as a member of the Morgan family, because the younger sister married a Morgan around this time in the 1880’s. However today I found a member of my DNA line that had moved to the same area about the time the baby was born was about the correct age and could have very well been the father of the baby. He was either married or soon to be married to another woman and had children with her. We have never before found any other connection between the two Rowland DNA lines so this is an exciting possibility, however I am not very knowledgeable about DNA etc so looking for guidance. Haploroup was G-M201. Please contact me if you can assist me.
Hi Russell,
I reviewed your Y-DNA match list, and you are clearly part of Rowland Y-DNA Group J (https://rowlandgenealogy.com/dna-group-j/). Given that you have 15+ “Rowland” matches and 1 “Morgan” match, I think it is safe to say you descend from many generations of Rowlands, and the Morgan match is the result of an NPE (Non-Paternal Event) such as adoption, birth out of wedlock, etc.
This is a case where autosomal DNA testing would be very helpful. I recommend the AncestryDNA test for the reasons stated in this article: https://rowlandgenealogy.com/dna-testing-case-study/
If you and Mr Morgan were to both take an autosomal test, then link your results to your trees on Ancestry, the “Shared Matches” feature on Ancestry should help you find your common ancestor. It will tell you how many centiMorgans (cM) of DNA you share, which can then tell you if he is a 3rd, 4th, or 5th cousin. Then see where the other shared matches fit in each other’s trees to help you narrow in on your common ancestor. I can help you review your results when you get to that point.
Ron,
I have been trying to track down information on Virginia Rowland Kirby, Daughter of Benjamin Rowland and Virginia Lafayette (Day) Rowland. She was born in 1846 and, according to Geni, died at Albion, NY on December 12, 1869. Geni says she was the ex-wife of Rev. Reynold Marvin Kirby. I find that hard to believe. Her mother gave Rev. Kirby $5000 to start a girls’ school, Roiwland Hall, in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1880, which doesn’t solund like the action of a mother whose daughter’s husband divorced her. I believe that she died, rather than was divorced. Four years later Rev. Kirby later married Jane Stevenson. They had four children, the youngest of whom was named Virginia Rowland Kirby.
Can you clarify this situation? I have been writing about Rev. Kirby, and don’t want to include anything that isn’t correct. You can see what I’ve got so far at jstaylor.com. Follow the link about Trinity Church, Potsdam, NY.
JimT
Here is her WikiTree profile. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rowland-5617
She was married to Rev Kirby. It appears they were only married two months when she died.
Will check that out. Thanks for your great webpage. So much info!!
I am looking for proof of the wife of Joseph Rowland (born 1762), son of Casper Rowland and Mary Hunsaker. On line trees give her name as Catherine Dobbins, daughter of James Dobbins.
Joseph Roland marries about 1780-1781 and has his first child in December 1782. In several deeds, his wife is listed as Caty or Catey, probably short for Catherine.
James Dobbins does have a daughter Catherine but in his will in 1788 in Rowan County, she is listed as Catherine – no apparent marriage. Other daughters are listed with husband’s name.
In 1818, James Dobbins has son, John, who leaves a will and refers to his sister Catherine Dobbins and her son Jacob Skiles. Jacob born about 1792.
I don’t think Joseph Rowland’s wife is Catherine Dobbins. (at least not the daughter of James)
I have not been able to find a marriage record for Joseph.
Can anyone help me out?? Provide any proof on Joseph’s marriage.
Linda, I am not aware of any actual marriage record, and I have no knowledge of the Dobbins family. As for Joseph Roland (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rowland-134), his wife being Catherine Dobbins is related in “Mary Hunsaker Roland (Wife of Gasper Roland) and Descendants”, a document which is available in our free downloads: https://rowlandgenealogy.com/product/mary-hunsaker-roland-wife-of-gasper-roland-and-descendants/
This document claims (on page 43) that Catherine is the daughter of Alexander Dobbins and their marriage took place in 1776 at Frederick County, Maryland.
Dear Ron,
I am descended from the Rowlands family who were Blacksmiths in Dinas Mawddwy, Merioneth, and I have a lot of material to share. I also did an Ancestry DNA test last month. I’m not sure how to link you to my test (which actually doesn’t tell me much I haven’t already learnt over 30 years research) but I will do whatever is most helpful.
My Rowlands great grandmother, Jane (1821-74) married John Evans in London in 1849, lived there until retiring to Dinas Mawddwy, in poor health, in 1874. She left one daughter, Kate, who married Victor Youatt, and had two children, but sadly died aged 25 of typhoid fever in 1882. I have my grandmother’s photo of her mother who was brought up by her maiden aunt. Sadly no information about John Evans was passed on to me by his granddaughter (my grandmother) and his name makes him very difficult to find! I think he must have died in Wales fairly soon after his wife.
I have visited cousins in Wales and, of course Dinas Mawddwy (several times) and taken photos of the old family Smithy, now derelict.
Hi Judy,
There are a couple of ways you can share. One way is to create profiles of your Rowland ancestors on WikiTree and upload your pictures and stories to those profiles. Another way is to compile them into a document to share here on RowlandGenealogy.com. I could help you craft it into a guest article for publication and/or offer it as a download.
Unfortunately, there is not a way to link your autosomal DNA results to anything here. Our DNA groupings are based on male Y-DNA tests, which trace the paternal Rowland lines back thousands of years (instead of the 5 or 6 generations that an autosomal test provides). However, you can share your DNA results by downloading your AncestryDNA test and uploading it (for free) to FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch. There is more information toward the end of this article: https://rowlandgenealogy.com/dna-testing-case-study/
Ron
Hi Ron
Im looking for a link between Ann Elaine Margaret Rowland 13 Jan 1836 wa – 19 Aug 1879 married John James Cockman b 1834 WA – 17 May 1929 to the Rowlands in Victoria – wondering if she is a relation of mine – Joan Alexander Rowland b 10 Feb 1926 in Geelong, Victoria d 27 Sep 2013 in Sebastopol is my first cousin once removed
It would be wonderful if you can help me
Thanks Maxine Dawes
Maxine,
I believe Ann Elaine Margaret (Rowland) Cockman is Rowland-9026 on WikiTree https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rowland-9026. This profile has potential DNA matches listed available to research at GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA.
However, I could not find the Joan Alexander Rowland you mentioned or any Rowland relatives connected to you at WikiTree. it looks like you have taken a MyHeritage DNA test, but you haven’t uploaded those results to a site (GEDmatch, FTDNA, etc) where they can be compared. If you were to do this, then I could run a DNA analysis.
I am not familiar with Australian genealogy sourcing beyond what’s available at FamilySearch and FindAGrave. For now, there is not much I can do without additional information (WikiTree ID) for Joan Alexander Rowland.