Mary, This may/may not be of any help, but I was just recently researching Van Allen families in Albany, and was looking at land ownership maps of 1859. There were several Houghtailing families there, as well as Winne families that married into the Van Allens. If you have not investigated the records of Albany County, I feel you may find some answers there. I saw variations of the name as Hogtailing, Hoogteling, Houghtailing, etc. Paul Horvat