Mightier Acorns

A Quick Overview of my work under this surname

You might recall from this earlier post:

Merilyn (Martin) Rossiter (1923 – 1997) was the daughter of Howard William Martin (1897–1970) and Aletha Frederick Putnam (1899–1981), born on 17 Aug 1923 in Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa. She married Arvid Wesley “Bud” Holmquist (1920–1996) in 1943 in Douglas County, Nebraska.

Merilyn was my wife’s maternal grandmother, and from her, I showed her matrilineal line as far back as I have been able to go. On Merilyn’s paternal line, I have only been able to trace a couple of generations, so there is work to be done in that direction!

Here-We-Go Howie

Merilyn’s father was Howard Martin, a World War I army veteran and businessman in 1920s Iowa. He ran his own Texaco filling station and held positions at several successful companies. He even had his own radio program on the local Omaha radio station, KOIL, where he was known as “Here-We-Go Howie”. You can see from this 1925 opinion piece that he thought very highly of the radio:

Howard was the only child of William Findley Martin (1874–1943) and Harriet Jenevereth “Hattie” Shepard (1874–1923). I have been able to establish that William Findley Martin’s parents were Charles R Martin (1847–1916) and Elizabeth L Caughey (1844–1926) and that he had a brother, Oscar J Martin (1870–1934), but I have a lot of work to do if I hope to find out more about this family.

As always, I’d love to hear from descendants of these folks, and if you have questions about them, that will help me plan my future research. Drop a comment to connect:

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