Rowland Project & WikiTree

The Rowland Surname Database

The Rowland Xref Project database of people with the Rowland surname (and variants) is maintained on WikiTree. The quantity of Rowland profiles has grown rapidly over the past few years. During the year 2022, the number had grown to more than 18,000 profiles. The Rowland Genealogy page on WikiTree provides the latest quantities by spelling variation.

There is a wealth of data and statistics available when clicking on the various quick links on that page. For example, there are 131 genealogists tracking Rowland activity. Profiles without a manager are labeled as “orphaned profiles,” and as a member you can “adopt” any of them, thus becoming the manager.

There is also a list of “unconnected” Rowland profiles. This does not mean they are a stand-alone profile without any parents, siblings, spouses, or children. It means they are not connected to the global tree. In theory, we are all connected, but finding that connection sometimes proves to be difficult.

There are currently less than 200 Rowland profiles that are “unsourced” which is huge improvement over the 800 unsourced profiles in 2020. All profiles on WikiTree need sources. Without sources, the profiles and connections are meaningless.

Here are some of the items on the task list of the Rowland Project :

• Establish a WikiTree profile for every Rowland on the planet
• Source “unsourced” Rowland profiles
• Extend the lines of existing profiles in both directions (ancestors and descendants)
• Identify and create profiles for the descendants of the Group Patriarchs in our Xref Trees table
• Increase the quantity of descendants with profiles within each group
• Identify all unique large Rowland lines
• Increase the quantity of Y-DNA test takers within each group
• Improve the quality of existing profiles with additional sources

WikiTree — The Natural Choice

We believe WikiTree is the best and most natural choice to be the platform for documenting and connecting all Rowland genealogic profiles. The reasons for this are multiple including:

• It is a totally free site and pledges to remain so. This is important for many reasons. The cost of creating and maintaining a tree at popular sites can be enormous, and the ability for families to see your work is limited without them having to pay also. When it comes time to pass the genealogy baton to the next generation, the transition will be much easier, smoother, and economical at a free site versus saddling future generations with the costs.
• Avoids redundancy by not creating a separate database at RowlandGenealogy. Why reinvent the wheel when it is already there and free to use?
• Avoids redundancy through its design. The WikiTree philosophy is that there can only be one profile for each person — it is a global tree. The vast majority of ancestors on sites like Ancestry.com appear in multiple trees. It is not uncommon for someone born in the mid-1800s to appear in dozens of trees. Some early 1700s ancestors can be found in more than 100 individual unique trees at other sites. Each one was researched, created, maintained, and connected by separate individuals — this is redundancy and inefficiency at an absurd level.
• The power of collaboration without free-range unaccountability. WikiTree has more than 900,000 global genealogists working on a single global tree of more than 32 million profiles. Ancestry.com is 10 million people all working on their own trees, with a few dozen to maybe a few thousand people in those trees. Each WikiTree profile can have a manager with the ability to monitor and control changes. Some other efforts have given global collaborative trees a bad name due to their uncontrolled, unaccountable, and unrealistic “free-range” nature. The WikiTree infrastructure and philosophy provide a solution to the problems encountered by other efforts.
• If you haven’t spent time on WikiTree and connected yourself to the global tree, then you will be shocked by the breadth and depth of your connections and relationships that are possible with a collaborative effort.

About WikiTree

WikiTree is a collaborative effort to build a global and free family tree. The community is on a mission to grow The Free Family Tree — one accurate, shared tree that connects us all, and is accessible to us all for free, forever. Wikitree prides itself on being 100% free. It doesn’t cost money to contribute to WikiTree, and it doesn’t cost money to access what you and others have contributed. All the tools are free and all the content is free. The costs of operating the site are covered by modest ads on the public pages.

The tree currently has more than 32 million profiles and more than 10 million with DNA test connections.

Their Pledge: Always Free

As the creators and hosts of the WikiTree website, we pledge that our mission is the same as that of the community: to create an accurate, single family tree that will make genealogy free and accessible for everyone.

Free is an essential part of our shared mission. We will never charge for access to the single family tree. And we will never knowingly and willingly sell or transfer the single family tree to any individual or organization that intends to charge for access to it.

— The WikiTree Pledge: Always Free

View Rowland Xref Project to see the current status and details for each descendant grouping.

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If you are a Rowland or have a Rowland in your family tree, then you need to subscribe to the Rowland Genealogy Newsletter.