There are two major purposes of the Haviland / de Havilland DNA surname project:

1) Clarifying and corroborating the Haviland & de Havilland family trees world wide. There is a large database of Havilands and de Havillands believed to be descended from a one Thomas, Sieur de Haveilland, a Jurat of Guernsey in 1470. This is based on research passed down to us by a number of individuals, culminating as the 1914 book Haviland Genealogy by Josephine C. Frost which focuses largely on the American descendants. Many Havilands have traced themselves back to lines published in this book, resulting in a huge family tree that for now is largely unsupported by primary evidence. The DNA study will strengthen the certainty of this genealogy. It will also reveal some branches of Haviland that may not be related to this genealogy at all. (It cannot be assumed that all families bearing variants of the name Haviland are the same paternal genealogy.)

2) Understanding the differences between the Irish, Guernsey families, and proving or disproving the relationship between the Guernsey and German branches. People with the surname of Havoline, Havline, or Havlin, or whose ancestors spelled their name this way, are believed to be descended from an Irish family. Ancestral spelling of de Havilland or de Avilant descend from the Guernsey family. The names of Haverland, Haverlanth, Hawerland and Hauerlandt appear to originate in Germany and surrounding territories. While it is true that the Franks (whom are believed to have originated the Guernsey family) migrated down from the Germanic regions, so far no Y-DNA connection has been established between the "Havlin," "de Havilland" and "Haverland" names, all of which in modern times have appeared as "Haviland." But we strongly encourage more men who trace back to these variant spellings and regions to participate in this project for a clearer picture of these genealogies!