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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about

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: Rhode Island

Families that lived in the state and left records behind there.

  • Shepards and Rounds

    A two-for-one development – and a lesson in Endogamy Harriet Jenevereth “Hattie” Shepard (1874–1923) was the paternal grandmother of Merilyn Martin, my wife’s maternal grandmother – and thus, one of “Her Sixteen.” Hattie was born on 18 Dec 1874, the youngest of three children of Sylvanus S Shepard (1850–1921) and Lucy Gertrude Rounds (1848–1920). Her…

  • William Bowen: Two Revolutionary War Veterans

    New Wavetop: William Bowen (Sr.) (1760-1854) To orient ourselves: Amanda Lydia (Walker) Callin (1856 – 1933) was my 2nd great-grandmother – one of My Sixteen. A few weeks ago, we talked about her maternal grandfather, William Bowen, Jr.: Today we’re talking about his father – William Bowen (1760-1854) – and some of the speed bumps…

  • Consistently Misimagined

    In which we arrive in a world full of Johns Green(e) For nearly ten years, I have held onto the notion that I was descended from one of the founders of Rhode Island – a surgeon named John Greene. I was very excited about the idea, and the research I did on his biography became…

  • Simple Statements of Fact

    They can be tricky – leading to a really long post today Alice Matteson married Thomas Whitford on 9 Jan 1752 in West Greenwich, Kent County, Rhode Island. We know this from the marriage record which was documented in the 21-volume Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899, compiled by James Newell Arnold and published from…

  • A Solid Piece of Evidence

    It doesn’t take much to make a connection Our story, so far: We began climbing our ladder to Providence with my great-grandfather, Alfred Tuttle. Our goal was to examine the available evidence connecting each generation of his ancestry back to the founding of Providence Plantations, Rhode Island. Greene Whitford (1759-c. 1816) was the son of…

  • A Watershed and a Rule of Three

    Taking stock of the journey so far We have been climbing a ladder of evidence for a couple of months now – a metaphorical ladder leaning against the side of one of my “family palm trees”. The first several rungs felt like very solid footing, but the last three have been increasingly shaky. Depending on…

  • An Old Man's Memory

    A lifeline to Providence Genealogists urge each other to talk to their oldest living relatives and record their memories as best they can. This is difficult for a lot of people to do – the researchers might be unsure of themselves, or their relationship with their relatives might not make interviewing them in their old…

  • A Search for Evidence

    Looking for the link from Harlow Wells to Thomas Wells Our story thus far: I have been examining the evidence I have connecting my grandmother, Alberta (Tuttle) Clark back to our possible ancestor, one of the founding families of the Providence Plantations in what is now Rhode Island. We started with her father, Alfred Tuttle,…

  • Climbing the Ladder to Providence

    Step One, in which our heroes begin their journey Nearly nine years ago, I spent a small amount of time exploring my maternal grandmother’s side of the family, and I fell into a rabbit hole. What I found led to an ancestor who settled in Providence, Rhode Island, and founded the First Baptist Church there…