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

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Tad Callin has been working on family history and genealogy since the late 1990s. He does most of his research on Ancestry and posts what he learns to WikiTree.

Category: California

  • Grandma Bert’s Travelogue

    Grandma Bert’s Travelogue

    Married after the end of the Second World war, my maternal grandparents embarked on a lengthy 50-year journey. Here’s a taste of it!

  • Raising the Rupes

    Raising the Rupes

    We learned some tragic details in The Ballad of Mrs. Steele, but there are hints of other tragedies in her parents stories. Today we look at her mother’s life and the people in it, hoping to figure out some answers.

  • The Davidsons Arrive in Oregon

    The Milton Township Diaspora (part 3) When we last talked about Sarah (Montgomery) Davidson and her family, they set out from Fulton County, Indiana, and took to the Oregon Trail in 1852: Sarah and Henry Davidson took their four children and their adopted niece, Sarah Farrell, on the trip; we have only talked about Sarah…

  • Tell Us About the Girl From New York City

    Most of her story remains underground The Opp family is my mother’s maternal grandmother’s maternal side—and if that doesn’t emphasize “maternal” enough, I think of them as being on the Opp-osite side of the tree from my Callin family. (Opening with a Dad joke of that magnitude should rebalance things, don’t you think?) I’ve tried…

  • The Milton Township Diaspora (part 1)

    A tale from when the West was still young Once upon a time, several families founded a town in Ohio. Benjamin Montgomery (1766-1841) brought his wife, Nancy, and their six children from Virginia to settle in Weller Township, Richland County, Ohio, where they laid out a town in 1816. Benjamin called the town “Olivesburg” after…

  • Richard Zimmerman: World War II Sailor

    When our identity is taboo, it is too easy to be erased from history Note: much of this post is adapted from “You Just Can’t Matcham,” posted on my old Mightier Acorns blog on November 11, 2016. If you are interested in this family, I included a lot more information about George and Emma’s children…

  • Piggies: A Preview

    Chapter 10 from “Tad’s Happy Funtime” Thirty years ago, I was a Korean student at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. I met the love of my life, proposed to her (on Valentine’s Day!) and married her (on St. Patrick’s Day!), and started our family. Ten years ago, I published my book, “Tad’s Happy…

  • Maintaining a Pattern

    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…

  • What's In a Name?

    And a face to go with the name… As many folks may know, I have a deep affection for unusual names. The person at the center of today’s post possesses my all-time favorite unusual name – beating out the likes of “Gladimere Schreck” and “Thor Glyde Day” for the honor. But before we get to…

  • Unboxing Wiley: part 3

    The Box I got a call back from Wiley’s niece, Nancy. At first, she was understandably hesitant. A strange man calls out of the blue and tells you, “I am a family history researcher, and I think your estranged uncle (who you may or may not have ever met) just died.” What would you think?…