As others have pointed out so rightly, the descendants of Edward Howell, the Southampton settler, do not equal all the Howells in this country. It just seems like it! The reason the issue comes up at all is that the Long Island Howells were incredibly prolific. Edward had ten offspring, and counting only the males who lived to maturity (and thus passed on the Howell name) we have John (11 children), Edward (11), Richard (7), Arthur (11), and Edmund (3). Carry that out a few generations, remember that Southampton was the first New York settlement by the English, and there's no wonder that there are so many ancestors all around the country. There was population pressure to push them off of what must have been a difficult life on the Island, and lots of "open spaces" to lure them. As for the New Jersey Howells, I know that there were several Howell settlers who went directly from England to New Jersey. And there were some that settled in the Cape May area after things got "too crowded" on LI around 1680. I'm afraid I'm not much help on the specifics, since my line didn't get itchy feet until 1900 or so, and stayed in Southold until then. Bill Wilson Mill Valley, California wdwilson@netwizards.net