Mightier Acorns

Who I Am, and Where I’m From

For those who don’t know me, my name is Tad Callin, and I’ve been researching my family history since my first child was born in the mid-1990s. I was interested in genealogy as a kid, but after I had a kid of my own, I started taking it more seriously. That was slightly more than a quarter century (and four grownup children) ago.

Over the years, I’ve tried several times to build a community around the work I was doing, but genealogy/family history presents a difficult needle to thread: focusing on your personal research can limit your audience to scattered cousins who don’t know each other and focusing on general research topics tends to get really dry and really academic in a hurry.

I maintained a blog called Mightier Acorns for several years, while I was compiling my book – a large undertaking that documented seven generations of descendants of Revolutionary War veteran James Callin. When I finished that project, I was tired and needed some time to regroup.

It has been a year since my last post on Blogger, but I haven’t stopped working on family histories. Most of my time has been spent adding my research to WikiTree so that it is a little bit easier to share. I am an Ancestry member and do the vast majority of my records research there. I have a much smaller presence on FamilySearch. I have had my DNA done by Ancestry and by FamilyTreeDNA, but I have barely scratched the surface of what can be done with DNA research.

As I prepared to bring Mightier Acorns back from inactivity, I decided to try using Substack instead of Blogger because it looks like it might be easier to build something that appeals to both kinds of people that make up my target audience: curious cousins who might not have a lot of research experience and seasoned researchers I can learn from. I’ll be experimenting with newsletters, subscriptions, tags, and other features, but before I can do that, I need to get back into the habit of writing.

That’s where you can help me.

I’m looking for feedback and input on what you, as a reader, might like to see in a blog about my genealogical research. I would like to continue writing about the discoveries I make, how I made them, where I have found useful information, and where I’ve run into mysteries. All of that is easier when it’s part of a conversation – so drop me a note and let me know what you’d like to see me post about.

You can also email me through this Contact Form.