Confirmed Houghton DNA Lines
The Houghton DNA database has 102 volunteers who have donated their DNA sample
for the following 29 confirmed Houghton and Haughton lines:
Houghton lines (23):
1 Ralph Houghton of Lancaster, MA
(10 volunteers; including descendants of multiple sons)
2 John Houghton of Lancaster, MA
(16 volunteers; including Jotham, Reuben, Jonathan, and Oliver Houghton lines)
3 John Houghton of New Jersey
(related to Stephen Houghton of England via 1-allele match)
4 Elijah Houghton of Virginia, USA
5 Thomas Houghton of England (Bolingbroke)
6 Matthew Houghton of Liverpool, England
7 Frederic S. Houghton of Norwich, England
8 William Guy Houghton of England
9 Robert Houghton of England
10 John Houghton of Australia
11 Charles W. Houghton of England
12 Edward William Houghton of England
(b. 20 Sept 1808, Cripplegate, London)
13 Asa Houghton of New York and England (b. 1809-1880)
14 Neil Houghton of England
15 Casco Houghton of USA
16 Edward Lewis Houghton of England (1859-1907)
17 Henry Houghton of England
18 George Houghton of England (b. c. 1780)
19 James Houghton of Leicestershire, England
20 Anthony Holton / Houghton of England
21 John Houghton / Hutton of Ireland
22 Stephen Houghton of England
(b. 1782, d. 1850, Warwickshire and Hampshire)
23 Richard Houghton of England
24 Howard Grover Houghton
25 John George Houghton (Joshua Houghton line, England)
26 Robert John Houghton of Melbourne, Australia
(b. abt. 1943; line traces to early 1800s London)
27 Thomas Houghton of Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England
(b. c. 1745, d. 1804; Big Y-700 confirmed)
28 Robert Houghton of Lancashire, England
(haplogroup inferred from project grouping; dedicated test pending)
29 Edward Houghton of England
(Family B, Ralph Houghton Lancaster MA line)
Haughton lines (4):
1 Richard Haughton of England
2 Alfred Haughton of England (b. Jun 1863)
3 Steven Patrick Haughton of Ireland
(L257 Backbone SNP confirmed; distinct Irish Haughton line)
4 Anthony Alexander Haughton
Hooton Lines (1):
1 Thomas Hooton of England (b. 1752, d. 1841)
Horton Lines (2):
1 Barnabas Horton of England
2 Joseph Horton (b. 1754, Oyster Bay, NY)
Howton Lines (1):
1 John Herschel Howton
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There is now evidence that the four major American Houghton lines — Ralph
Houghton of Lancaster MA, John Houghton of Lancaster MA, John Houghton of NJ,
and Elijah Houghton of VA — are genetically separate in terms of Y-DNA. Four
lines previously listed independently — Reuben Houghton, Oliver Houghton,
Jonathan Houghton, and Jotham Houghton — are confirmed as genetically related
to John Houghton of Lancaster MA and are now grouped within that line.
The Elijah Houghton line is a separate line. The Thomas Houghton line, the
Matthew Houghton line, and the Frederic S. Houghton line, all of England, are
separate lines. The three Haughton lines are unrelated to one another and to
the Houghton lines.
Please note that two men who are not related through their Y-DNA (paternal line)
can still be genetically related through other lines of descent:
Y-DNA inheritance: Y-DNA is passed from father to son along the direct
paternal line. If two men have significantly different Y-DNA haplogroups, it
indicates they do not share a common male-line ancestor in recent history.
Other DNA inheritance: You inherit DNA from both your mother and father, not
just your paternal line — autosomal DNA from both parents, and mitochondrial
DNA from your mother.
Shared ancestors: Even if two men do not share a direct paternal ancestor,
they could still be related through female-line or other ancestors.
Autosomal DNA testing: Autosomal DNA tests can reveal these non-paternal
relationships by analyzing shared DNA segments from all your ancestors.
In summary: Two men with different Y-DNA haplogroups are not related through
their direct paternal line. However, they can still be related through other
ancestral connections, and autosomal DNA testing can help identify these
relationships.
There are now 29 separate Houghton/Haughton lines based on Y-DNA evidence.
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Genealogical research has begun relying on the biological fact that the Y
chromosome is passed virtually unchanged from father to son down through
hundreds of generations. It is possible to do a simple DNA analysis on two men
and learn whether the two are related on the paternal side or not. By testing
direct male-line descendants of the early Houghton/Haughton immigrants, we can
learn whether the immigrants were in fact related. It is necessary to test
several descendants for each immigrant in order to get accurate results.
The DNA test measures the lengths of 12, 25, 37, 67, or 111 specific markers
(loci) on the Y chromosome. These markers have no genetic function and will not
reveal physical characteristics, genetic diseases, or innate tendencies. They
will only reveal whether test subjects are related to each other. Since this
test applies to the Y chromosome, test subjects must be male and must carry the
Houghton surname (with a few exceptions due to adoptions or name changes).
The goal is to identify at least two male-line descendants of each identifiable
Houghton or Haughton founder — preferably through at least two different sons
of the founder — which allows reconstruction of the haplotype (DNA pattern) for
that progenitor and comparison against other progenitors to determine whether
they were related.
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The rough rule, genetically, is that if you have only 10 of 12 markers
matching, the individuals are unrelated; 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
Around 80 to 90% of matches at 12 markers are false positives due to the low
resolution of the test — 12 markers is only a good yes/no/maybe indicator.
Around 20 to 30% of matches at 25 markers are false positives; around 10% at
37 markers; probably 5% at 67 markers.
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 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 those men are these
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.
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Haplogroups:
R-M269 (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 10-12 thousand years ago. This
lineage also contains the Atlantic modal haplotype. For more information, see
the Wikipedia article: R1b
I / I1 / I-M253: The I, I1, 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 they are thought to denote descent from Viking invaders. One lineage of
this group extends into central Europe. For more information, see the Wikipedia
article: I1
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There are now 29 separate confirmed Houghton/Haughton lines based on Y-DNA
evidence.
Eventually it would be ideal to have participants from as many Houghton/Haughton
ancestors as possible, preferably from two and ideally from three different sons
of the most distant known ancestor of each line, which would allow establishment
of a baseline DNA signature for that ancestor.
Do you have your Houghton line represented? If not, volunteer!
If using this material please use citation:
"Houghton Surname Project, authored and compiled by Charles J. Vella, PhD"
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