I found My Sixteen, and Her Sixteen – now what about Their Sixteens?
I’ve written at length about how helpful it was to focus on finding my Sixteen great-great-grandparents when I was starting out. But now I’m a seasoned (pronounced: “old”) amateur researcher with both My Sixteen and my wife’s Sixteen documented in 32 WikiTree profiles. (Plus our “Great 28” generations, with WT profiles for me, my wife, our parents, grandparents, and great-grands.)
So, now what?
My Wavetops posts are helping me organize and map out how far I can see beyond the Sixteens. But what if I wanted to set a goal to document the Sixteen great-great-grandparents of of My Sixteen?
16 times 16 = 256; is that realistic?
| Great-great grandparent: | Ancestor surnames: | Number of “16” identified: |
| John Henry Callin (1840-1913) | Berlin, Simon, Baughman (not certain) | 0 |
| Amanda Lydia Walker (1856-1933) | Walker, Bowen, Young, Pearce, Carpenter, Rouse | 4 |
| Allen Marion Greenlee (1861-1887) | Greenlee, Jamphry (uncertain), Bollman, Waters, Young, Mehr | 2 (maybe 3) |
| Alice A Hale (1865-1942) | Bailey, Spitler | 0 |
| Abraham Howard Witter (1859-1918) | Witter, Piper, Zollinger (uncertain), Tice/Theiss, Jones, Lauer, Hauer | 2 (maybe 3) |
| Nancy Ellen Shriver (1864-1936) | Cline, McVay, Brown, Buck, Brazelton,Linn, Poynter | 6 (2 confirmed) |
| Albert Crydler Huff (1854-1936) | Stroud, Stanford | 2 |
| Rosa Edith Murray (1861-1943) | Livingston, Alexander, Clemson, Strode,Bender | 4 |
| Joel Monroe Clark (1828-1915) | Stumbaugh, Gilliland, Houdershell, Taylor | 1 |
| Sarah Jane Bellamy (1836-1920) | West, Hamm, | 1 |
| James Thomas Reynolds (1852-1911) | Arthur | 0 |
| Mary Frances May (1858-1882) | West, Spence, Staton, Glover, Neil | 2 |
| John Jackson Tuttle (1872-1963) | Zindle, Hall, Plumstead/Plumsted | 2 |
| Florence Mabel Hart (1874-1945) | Seymour, Collins, Pond, Hubbard, Foote,Wells, Whitford, Swain, Pierce, Fletcher, Tenney, Cole, Barker | 12 (plus 2 or 3 not on WikiTree, yet) |
| Emil Carl Adolph Frey (1869-1936) | Horn | 0 |
| Emily Amelia Opp (1871-1913) | Karcher, Welch, Martz, Palmer, Peterson, Hoffman | 3 |
If I made a chart like this for Her Sixteen, it would have 4 total – and those are ancestors of Daisy Deane (Frederick) Putnam (1870-1964) who I have not confirmed, yet. The majority of Her Sixteen were immigrants from Germany or Scandinavian countries, so for many of them, the concept of “surnames” doesn’t apply.
I’m only close to having all Sixteen of one of my Sixteen – and I only have 41 of my 256 identified. Most of those profiles exist thanks to the work of other WikiTree contributors, and I need to go in and verify that the profiles all have source citations and identify the correct people.
The Best Kinds of Goals
When I think about the numbers this way, it helps me wrap my mind around concepts that I don’t easily understand. I am not a numbers person, though I am somebody who has worked with and supervised “numbers people” in the course of my career. Doing this math and thinking about the amount of work that goes into confirming the connections between each individual in a family tree helps me scope realistic goals for myself.
It also helps me appreciate the amount of work already put into the family history, both by me and by my cousins. By now, I realize that I am an anomaly when it comes to fellow non-professional genealogists. Most people who get interested find a single line of ascent (usually their paternal line, or their mother’s paternal line) and their goals tend to revolve around going “as far back” as they can. I don’t want to discourage them, but that’s not what propels me.
The whole concept of “Mightier Acorns” revolves around a focus on the little people, the people history considers inconsequential as individuals, but the people who create history by getting up every day, making a lunch, sharing memes with their friends, and taking care of daily business. Documenting their lives can be hard, if they didn’t see a value in documenting it for themselves.
For now, I don’t think aiming for my 256 is within reach, but perhaps someday, if I keep doing the hard work of finding sources and building profiles, I’ll be closer. I’ll stick to adding a few acorns at a time, and we’ll see how big a forest we can grow.
Mightier Acorns 
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