Heather;
A possible source of help may be Mr. Llewellyn (Louie) Howland, a curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. While he is a direct descendent of Henry Howland, John's brother, he has a wealth of information about the Howlands. He has helped me. Since I'm not comfortable giving out his e-mail, I suggest that you call or send an e-mail to the whaling museum requesting that he contact you. That's what I did and he was very good about getting back. He's a neat guy.
It was he whom I contacted when an idea occurred to me to have some type of Howland reunion in or near New Bedford or Plymouth this summer. Since the idea was too late, I'm looking at something for next summer. I'm not just looking at my immediate relatives since, other than my children, there is only my brother and one 1st cousin. So, if that were to happen, it would be open to all Howlands. It would also be more like a "Howland Day" rather than a reunion. Just some type of get together to meet other lines of Howlands and share stories. I've had a lot of contact with some Howlands who ended up in Texas, were part of the Howland migration to New Jersey and others to Hollywood.
If this interests you, let me know. I'm slowly asking around as I connect to others in the Howland family.
The reason I reference "Kim's father" is that she started the tree since there are so few of us left who actually knew some family from the late 1800s and knew some of the stories. The more I dig, the more I find the stories to be just that, stories. The truth is much stranger.
John