History of the Howell
and
Allied Families

Introduction

We ususally don't know.  Oral tradition has a short half-life, so someone has to write it down, either in that generation or the next.  But our ancestors were usually to busy to do anything of the sort, where they were able to at all.

Any such document has to survive.  Fire and floods devour a few.  Heat, mildew, mold, and bugs make many unreadable. Some are tossed out as old junk, others may be too embarrassing to keep,  and every home has its black hole where things just disappear.  We, and nature, are not often kind to our history.

If our document still exists, we have to find it.  Nothing says that it must be handed down with the surname, so it may be in any branch of the family.  Maybe it isn't in the family at all, or they have it and don't know it.

The historian rarely has the documents that answer the questions directly, and while here we don't have all that we want, this is not completely fact-free.  We have a family genealogy, and have fleshed it out with census data and the occasional lucky find.  Still, the ratio of hard data to rampant speculation is alarmingly low.  You have been warned.


Patience, please. This Web site is a work in progress, and the image of a writing hand shows up to describe things yet to be done.  The easy research hasn't been exhausted and the difficult remains, awaiting the necessary time and money.  And don't expect to find all of the known facts here.  That would require more organization and effort than can be spared, but those facts that support the conclusions are recorded here.  The genealogy isn't here either. It needs much work before it is ready for the public. And of course, no work of this sort would be complete without maps.  You won't find any, yet.