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: German

Immigrant ancestors who spoke German or came from what would later become German states.

  • A Slight (or Sligt, or Sleight) Diversion

    Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by how much more there is to learn every time we run into an obstacle. These are some examples, and a few tips for maintaining your patience!

  • or, Catching Up With the Joneses You might recall that I talked about my wife’s ancestry in February—particularly the difficulty in tracing the Jones family of her 2nd great-grandmother, Alice Frances (Jones) McCullough. I had intended to follow up on the Jones family sooner than this, but today is the day: Introducing the Brookhousers Alice’s…

  • The downfall of one turn-of-the-century American family Martin L Callin (1853 – 1889) was born in Weller Township, in Richland County, Ohio, and grew up working on farms near Olivesburgh. His father was a shoemaker, Thomas Jefferson Callin, a respected businessman well-known in the town of Mansfield. Martin was this Callin family’s oldest son, though…

  • The top of my ladder is the bottom of another Abe Witter (1859-1918) was my 2nd-great-grandfather – one of My Sixteen. After I added his profile to WikiTree in 2019, another WikiTreer connected it to the profile of Abe’s father, Adam Piper Witter (1829-1909). I have since taken on the Profile manager role for Adam…

  • Leopold Zindle: The Story Behind the Story

    Why we keep doing research after we think we found all the answers Last week, we revisited a story about my 6th-great grandfather, a Hessian soldier who was captured by General Washington’s troops and sent to work in Mount Hope, New Jersey, for John Jacob Faesch, who needed laborers to continue making ammunition for the…

  • Inter-cultural ties to the larger family tree If you’ve been following my new music newsletter, All Kinds Musick, you may have noticed my recent post about the Los Lobos album, La Pistola y El Corazon. In it, I said: I credit [David Higaldo’s] work on this album as the final puzzle piece that made me…

  • The Hessian soldier in our family tree This week, I want to talk about Leopold Zindle, my 6th great-grandfather, a Hessian soldier who was taken as a prisoner of war by General Washington’s troops during the Battle of Paulus Hook in August 1779. To get to Leopold, we go through one of My Sixteen, John…

  • New questions in an ongoing puzzle I recently contacted the Allen County Public Library genealogy department with some questions. According to WorldCat, they hold the only copies1 of The Berlin Family, compiled by Reginald L. Berlin and Terry Johnson-Cooney and published by Roy Rushka. There are five volumes, and it looks like my Berlin family…

  • Going four generations back to find another line This surname can be found among my wife’s Sixteen great-great-grandparents. We have to go that far back to find the first Slight – Ida Slight (1863 – 1949) Ida was born in Ackley, Iowa, and married a Dutch immigrant named Bernard Blom on 21 Nov 1885. You…