Mightier Acorns

Journeys through Genealogy and Family History

A parody of a family coat of arms designed with acorns as elements, with the motto "ex gladnis potentioribus" Latin for "from Mighty Acorns"
From Mighty Acorns

Category: Admin

Posts about Mightier Acorns, but not necessarily about ancestors or research.

  • They only point the way… the rest is up to us If you were a fly on the wall… or if I set up a Twitch stream… the scene that would play out in front of you might disrupt your image of the studious researcher. I know I like to think of myself as a…

  • More of Aunt Vicki’s legacy We lost my Aunt Vicki this summer. But before she left, Vicki spent her time on countless thoughtful projects that will continue to remind us what was most important to her. Her son, Jeff, was the first of my generation of cousins, and for Christmas of 2021, Vicki assembled 50…

  • The right tool for the right job When I was putting together the Callin Family History, I spent about seven years doing research to augment the work I had inherited from George W. Callin, my 2nd-great uncle. Along the way, I submitted dozens of photo requests to Find-a-Grave. By the time the CFH was ready…

  • “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” (1989), by Allan Gurganus “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” was a 1989 novel by Allan Gurganus in which the titular widow, Lucy, tells the story of her 1900 marriage to “Captain” William Marsden when she was 15 and her husband was 50. The specific details of…

  • Or “Being dragged down the rabbit hole” Our story today begins with the Bowen family. You may recall my September post on William Bowen: Wavetops: William Bowen, Jr. The WikiTree pages for William’s siblings were not well-developed, and since researching William (Sr.) led to a very well-done NEGHR report on them at American Ancestors1, I…

  • What does social media do for you or your research? This post was intended to be a “here are some social media platforms I’m on and some of the people/groups I follow” post, but I felt like some explanations were needed, and it kind of ballooned into … this. If you already know or don’t…

  • Wavetops: James McCullough (Sr.) (1757-1838) When John McCullough died in 1766, he left four orphans without family or support in Rowan County, North Carolina. The courts bound each child to an apprenticeship, each with different terms. In her 1991 Ph.D. dissertation, Johanna Lewis1 noted that of 52 orphans placed as apprentices before 1770, only one…

  • Rescued from obscurity Before we begin: I’ve been struggling to make these Wavetops posts work the way I wanted them to work – so I’m taking a slightly different approach. Instead of pointing at the “top” and talking about the work that still needs to be done, I’m going to start at the “bottom” and…

  • A recap of favorites from my first year on Substack I might miss posting next week due to traveling last week – if so, don’t panic! I will come back once I recover. But I think I’m allowed some time off. After all… I launched Mightier Acorns on Substack on 4 Oct 2023, with A…

  • A celebration of a wedding trend I’m at a special wedding this week – so I’m re-purposing an old post about weddings in my family. Here are three couples with a few things in common: How young were they? Well, that’s the basis for our trivia question – “Which of these brides was the youngest…