Join the world wide Houghton/Haughton DNA Database
The Houghton/Haughton DNA Project
(Double Click the above line)
Current Volunteer Count: Eighty-one Houghton contributors
There are currently 102 Houghton DNA volunteers; and 29 separate Houghton/Haughton lines.
We still need many more male Houghton/Haughton surname DNA volunteers to ultimately see how many Houghton/Haughton genetic lines there actually are and to ultimately connect current American Houghton genetic lines with their English Ancestry.
Please consider volunteering.
Houghton DNA Project: Current Results (Double Click the above line or lines below)
Houghton DNA Project - Y-DNA Classic Chart
Houghton DNA Project - Y-DNA Colorized Chart
Houghton DNA Project statistics
There is now evidence that Ralph Houghton of Lancaster MA, John Houghton of Lancaster MA, John Houghton of NJ, Elijah Houghton of VA, Thomas Houghton of England, and Matthew Houghton of England did not share a common ancestor and, therefore, are not related.
We now have 29 separate Houghton/Haughton lines confirmed by DNA:
Houghton lines:
Ancestor Haplogroup Houghton DNA Volunteer
1 Ralph Houghton of MA I-M253 via 10 Houghton DNA volunteers
2 John Houghton of MA R-M269 via 16 Houghtons
3 John Houghton of NJ R-M173 via James Lowell Houghton
[Corrected from R-M269. R-M173 is upstream of R-M269 and phylogenetically
distinct. First DNA evidence of English ancestry via 1-allele match to
Stephen Houghton of England line.]
4 Elijah Houghton of VA, USA R-M269 via Thomas Roger Houghton
5 Thomas Houghton of England (Bolingbroke) R-P25 via Jeffrey Russell Houghton
6 Matthew Houghton of Liverpool, England R-M269 via Daniel Houghton
7 Frederic S. Houghton of Norwich, England R-M512 via Frederic James Houghton
8 William Guy Houghton of England R-U106 via Daniel Robert Houghton
9 Robert Houghton of England R-M269 via Rex Edward Houghton
10 John Houghton of Australia R-M269 via Neil Arthur Houghton
11 Charles W. Houghton of England R1a via Guillermo Houghton
12 Edward William Houghton of England I-L22 via Frederick Beryle Houghton
(b. 20 Sept 1808, Cripplegate, London)
13 Asa Houghton of NY & England (b. 1809-1880) G-M201 via Brian Blake Houghton Jr.
14 Neil Houghton of England R-Z326 via Neil Houghton
15 Casco Houghton of USA R-M269 via Lawrence Bradlee Houghton Sr.
16 Edward Lewis Houghton of England (1859-1907) R-Z278 via Brian Lewis Houghton
[Refined from R-M269. R-Z278 is a downstream subclade of R-M269,
confirmed by Family Finder testing.]
17 Henry Houghton of England R-M269 via George Houghton
18 George Houghton of England (b. c. 1780) R-M269 via David Brian Houghton
19 James Houghton of Leicestershire, England R-L48 via John Houghton
[Refined from R-M269. R-L48 is a downstream subclade of R-M269,
confirmed by Family Finder testing. Location corrected from Widnes.]
20 Anthony Holton/Houghton of England R-Z326 via Neil Henry K. Houghton
21 John Houghton/Hutton of Ireland J-M172 via Kevin Houghton
via Joseph Plunkett Houghton (Houton)
via Donal Hutton
22 Stephen Houghton of England R-M269 via James Robert Houghton
(b. 1782, d. 1850, Warwickshire & Hampshire)
23 Richard Houghton of England R-M198 via Paul William Jones Houghton
24 Howard Grover Houghton I-M170 via Howard Grover Houghton
via Timothy Mark Baker
25 John George Houghton I-M170 via John George Houghton
(Joshua Houghton line, England)
26 Robert John Houghton of Melbourne, Australia R-M269 via Neil Arthur Houghton
(b. abt. 1943, Kew, Melbourne; line traces to
early 1800s London, emigration to Australia 1920s)
27 Thomas Houghton of Wicken, R-BY60551 via Brian Houghton
Cambridgeshire, England (b. c. 1745, d. 1804) [Big Y-700 confirmed]
28 Robert Houghton of Lancashire, England R-M269 via Robert Houghton
[Grouped with Stephen Houghton of England line.
Haplogroup inferred from project grouping;
dedicated Y-DNA test pending confirmation.]
29 Edward Houghton of England (1859-1907) R-M269 via Jonathan Houghton
[Family B, Ralph Houghton Lancaster MA line]
4 Haughton lines:
1 Richard Haughton of England R1b via Kenneth Edward Haughton
2 Alfred Haughton of England (b. Jun 1863) R-M269 via Anthony Alexander Haughton
via Rex Edward Houghton
via Robert John Houghton
via Kemal Houghton (R-S15627)
3 Steven Patrick Haughton of Ireland R-L257 via Steven Patrick Haughton
[L257 Backbone SNP confirmed. Distinct Irish
Haughton line, unrelated to English Haughton lines.]
4 Anthony Alexander Haughton R-M269 via Anthony Alexander Haughton
Hooton Lines:
1 Thomas Hooton of England (b. 1752, d. 1841) R-M198 via Michael Dean Hooten
Horton Lines:
1 Barnabas Horton of England I-Z166 via Joseph Horton
[Corrected from I-M223]
2 Joseph Horton (b. 1754, Oyster Bay, NY) R-Z372 via Raymond D. Horton
Howton Lines:
1 John Herschel Howton R-M269 via John Herschel Howton
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A genetic distance of zero means that there are no differences in the two results and there is an exact match. If the genetic distance is small enough, the two people are considered a match, meaning they share a common ancestor. Their relatedness is extremely close with the common ancestor predicted, 50% of the time in 5 generations or less and over 95% probability within 8 generations.
The rough rule, genetically, is that if you have only 10 of 12 markers matching, the individuals are unrelated; and certainly unrelated if they have only 9 matching. If you have either 11 or 12 of 12 markers matching, you are related. 12 of 12 is an exact match (genetic distance of zero), meaning you are descended from the same common ancestor; similarly, a 37 for 37 match is a genetic distance of zero, while a 35 for 37 match equals a genetic distance of 2. A 35/37 match between two men with a common surname means they share a common male ancestor.
Not Related if: 3/12, 4/25, 6/37, >7/67, >20/111
James Lowell Houghton is a descendant of John Houghton of Stoney Brook, NJ and has a set of 12 alleles which are 1 allele different from James Robert of Canada, whose ancestor Stephen Houghton was from England. This is the first DNA evidence that John Houghton of NJ had English ancestry. Rex Edward Houghton is also 1 allele different from both James Lowell Houghton and James Robert Houghton, implying that Rex's ancestor, Robert Houghton of England, is also related to this group.
Hayward Sanderson Houghton II, Albert Leroy Houghton, Steven Philip Houghton, Dana Edward Houghton, John Darrell Houghton and Ralph H. Houghton are descendants of Ralph Houghton of Lancaster MA and have a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other Houghton volunteers. Thomas Roger Houghton is a descendant of Elijah Houghton of Virginia and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other volunteers. Jeffrey Russell Houghton is a descendant of Thomas Houghton of Bolingbroke, England and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to other volunteers. Jeffrey L. Haughton is a descendant of Alfred Haughton of England and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other Houghton volunteers. Ken Haughton, with 11 of 12 alleles matching, is related to Jeffrey L. Haughton. Daniel Houghton, Jr. is a descendant of Matthew Houghton of Liverpool, England and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other volunteers.
Frederic James Houghton is a descendant of Frederic Sydney Houghton of Norwich, England and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other volunteers.
Ken Haughton is a descendant of Richard Haughton of England and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other volunteers. Peter James Edward Haughton is a descendant of Joseph Haughton of Ireland and has a set of 12 alleles which are clearly different and unrelated to the other volunteers. William Wells Houghton, Walter Herbert Houghton, Gary Amer Houghton, Reed Richard Houghton, and David Barclay Houghton are exact matches of all 12 alleles. ALL are descendants of John Houghton of Lancaster MA through his son John, except for David who descends from his son Robert.
This implies that descendants of Reuben Houghton and Jonathan Houghton are actually descendants of John Houghton of Lancaster MA. Walter Vernon Houghton and Leland Devere Houghton are identical with this group except for their twelfth marker; they are descendants of John Houghton of Lancaster MA (and, for Walter Vernon, of Ralph Houghton of Lancaster MA).
Raymond, Larry, and George F. are exact matches and are also descendants of John Houghton of Lancaster MA, but through his son Robert; William D. Houghton is also an exact match, but through son Jonas. Raymond, Reed, Walter, William, Gary, Robert, and Michael are all related, sharing a common ancestor, John Houghton of Lancaster MA. Even though Walter, Reed, William, and Gary have a 10 in DYS 391 while the others share an 11, they all share an unusual result at DYS 389 and 392. Most men in Haplogroup R1b have a 13 in DYS 392 while these men have a 12. Additionally the spread in distance from DYS 389-1 versus 389-2 is typically 16 in males. These men have a spread (31-13 = 18) longer than normal by 2 points, so when FTDNA used those 2 facts and parsed through their database of 22,700 people only 1.16% of the entire database shares those combinations...and 7 of the men are these 7 Houghton volunteers. [FamilyTreeDNA, Bennett Greenspan, Jul 8, 2004]. Michael J. Houghton and Robert G. Houghton are less tightly linked to this group and more tightly linked to one another due to their results on markers 19 and 391. They share a common ancestor with one another more recently than the rest of the group.
Haplogroups:
R-M269 is the most common Haplogroup in Western Europe. Also known as R1b: Haplogroup R1b is the most common haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to have expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last glacial maximum 10 thousand years ago. This lineage is also the haplogroup containing the Atlantic modal haplotype. For more information on the haplogroup R1b, see the following Wikipedia article: R1b
I: The I, I1 (I-M253), and I1a lineages are nearly completely restricted to northwestern Europe. These would most likely have been common within Viking populations, found in Scandinavia and parts of Ireland, Scotland, and England, where it's thought to denote descent from the Viking invaders. One lineage of this group extends down into central Europe. For more information on the haplogroup I1, see the following Wikipedia article: I1
If using this material please use citation: "Houghton Surname Project, authored and compiled by Charles J. Vella, PhD"
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