1997

I'm the author and owner of the havilands.com and havilands.org web sites. I endeavored to create a definitive Haviland web site clear back in 1996, just before I first moved to New York. However, with all my other projects and work, I couldn't dedicate a lot of time to it. For years I had a "temporary" site up at havilandestate.com, an old domain which I have abandoned.

I currently live in White Plains, NY on Route 22, which intersects with Haviland Hollow Road only about an hour's drive North of me.

Here is my descent from William Haviland, the American immigrant popularized by Josephine C. Frost:

I have a son, Forest Sirmons Haviland, born 2004, who is quite possibly the only male carrying forward the Haviland name from Roger Foster Haviland and downward. If Forest (an anagram of Foster) does not have any sons, the Haviland branch descended from Roger Foster Haviland will become extinct. (No pressure!)

I am currently attempting to prove this descent with documentary evidence, which I plan on submitting to the Heralds in England in the hope that I can receive a grant of Arms. If I can achieve this, I will post information on the site which may help other Havilands in the same pursuit, rather than purchasing the Coat-of-Arms that countless companies sell with the claim that it "belongs" to the Haviland family, which it most certainly does not. (See my section on Heraldry for more clarity on this.) Even if you don't chase a grant of Arms (which isn't cheap), proof of descent is very important. Basing your descent on information found in a book, such as Josephine Frost's Haviland Genealogy, is not proof. You have to obtain census records, birth and death records, marriage licenses, Quaker Meeting records, and other original materials that link you to a given ancestor. This evidence validates your family tree and gives you a lot more credibility. Anyway, I may fail at linking myself to William, because Josephine may very well have based much of her genealogy on supposition. (Supposition, when based on realistic logic, may very well be the truth; but because it cannot be used as documentary evidence the Heralds and other institutions will not accept it.) In the above descent, I believe most of this information (above my great grandfather, Foster Lane Haviland) can be found in Quaker records.

I am also the official administrator of the Haviland DNA project, which will prove Haviland relationships between many distant cousins in the family, and strengthen (or weaken) the genealogy as presented by Josephine Frost. If you are a Haviland cousin, or even a Haviland but uncertain about your relationship with other Havilands, please enroll!

If you're so bored that you want to read more about me, there's plenty more at my family home page. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy Havilands.com as it slowly builds over time.