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The Howland surname and its historical variants do not represent a single paternal family. Y-DNA testing has identified several genetically distinct families using the surnames Howland, Howlen, Howlyn, Howlin, Howling, and related forms.
The surname may have developed independently in more than one part of England. Some examples may have originated from place-names or topographical descriptions involving land near a ridge or spur. Similar spelling alone does not prove that two families share a common paternal ancestor.
Henry Howland lived at Fenstanton in the historic county of Huntingdonshire and died there in 1635. He was the father of Arthur Howland, Mayflower passenger John Howland, and Henry Howland, Jr., who later settled in Plymouth Colony.
A separate Howland family lived at Ely, Cambridgeshire, during the same general period and used several of the same given names. No documentary or genetic evidence has yet established a relationship between the Ely and Fenstanton families.
High-resolution Y-DNA testing has identified the paternal family of Henry Howland of Fenstanton as R-A9708. Tested descendants of his sons Arthur, John, and Henry, Jr., share this haplogroup.
A genetically related East Kent Howlen and Howland family belongs to the separate branch R-FTE45147. Both R-A9708 and R-FTE45147 descend from the older R-A9703 paternal branch.
The present structure is:
R-A9703
├── R-A9708
└── Fenstanton Howland paternal line
└── R-FTE45147
└── East Kent Howlen and Howland paternal line
The shared R-A9703 ancestry establishes a paternal relationship between the Fenstanton and East Kent families. It does not yet identify their common ancestor, determine how many generations separated the branches, establish where the ancestor lived, or prove a direction of migration.
Other tested Howland families belong to unrelated haplogroups. These include a Monks Horton paternal family and additional English and international lines. A nonmatching result is valuable because it may identify an independent surname origin and prevent unrelated families from being combined.
Y-DNA is inherited through the direct paternal line from father to son. It can be used to determine whether men share paternal ancestry and to identify genetic branches within a documented family.
Two principal types of Y-DNA markers are used in this research.
STR markers are repeating sections of Y-DNA. They can mutate relatively quickly and are useful for comparing paternal relationships within genealogical time. Closely related men may have slightly different STR values.
SNP mutations are changes at individual locations on the Y chromosome. A SNP is inherited by a man’s direct paternal descendants and may define a new branch of the Y-DNA haplotree.
The Big Y-700 test examines both STR markers and a large portion of the Y chromosome for SNP mutations. When men from separate documented branches test, their shared and unshared mutations can help researchers determine where paternal lines separated.
Mitochondrial DNA is inherited by both males and females from their mothers. Only females pass it to the next generation. A tester must descend through an unbroken maternal line to represent the mitochondrial DNA of a particular ancestral woman.
The project studies the mtDNA of Elizabeth Tilley, wife of Mayflower passenger John Howland. Her maternal line is currently identified as H1a1+16209 through tested descendants from more than one daughter.
The project may also support research into the mitochondrial lines of other early Howland wives when qualified maternal-line descendants can be identified.
Autosomal DNA can help identify relatives and support more recent genealogical research. However, autosomal DNA alone generally cannot prove a particular line of descent extending to the early seventeenth century.
The Howland DNA Project combines genetic evidence with parish registers, probate records, property records, vital records, family papers, and other historical sources. DNA results are most useful when they are supported by a documented pedigree.
Additional information is available from the Howland DNA Project and the Mayflower DNA Project:
https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/howland/about
https://mayflowerdna.org/wiki/index.php/Howland_(Y-DNA)
https://mayflowerdna.org/wiki/index.php/Joan_Hurst_%26_Elizabeth_Tilley_%28mtDNA%29