Hi.

There is a ton of stuff on this family line. I know, because it's the same as mine. I am a Howard from Madisonville, and we trace back through the North Carolina Howards, and back to the Howards/Haywards of Virginia in the early 1600's. Our branch left NC around the time of the Civil War and moved into (primarily) Kentucky and Arkansas, as near as I can tell. I don't think there is any solid evidence before John Hayward in Virginia, but it's generally accepted that the line traces back to Sir Francis Howard and the Barons of Effingham in England, and on back to the Dukes of Norfolk, all the way back to the first Howard clearly in the records from about 1200. The link that all Howard genealogists get hung up on is "Who was John Hayward's father"? As I said, there doesn't seem to be any clear link in the written records. I wish someone would do the DNA testing to answer the question!