Category: Uncategorized
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A Quick Overview of my work under this surname Russell Hudson Clark (1920-2002) was my maternal grandfather. Most of the Clark families I work with are related to Grandpa Russ – but the surname does show up in my Callin Family History, too. Maternal side: Grandpa Russ was the youngest of a large family. He…
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posted Wednesday, July 24, 2019 Essay: The Corruption of Names Most cultures contain within their most primal beliefs the idea that Names have Power. You see this idea pop up in fantasy stories about magic, in mystical belief systems, and in most creation stories – for example, Adam’s first act in the Garden of Eden…
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A Quick Overview of my work under this surname My wife’s maternal grandfather, Arvid Wesley “Bud” Holmquist (1920 – 1996), was the son and grandson of Swedish and Norwegian immigrants who arrived in the United States during the 1880s (in the case of his maternal grandparents) and in 1910 (in the case of his father).…
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posted on Friday, December 12, 2014 Love and Loss in Old New York (and New Jersey) Joseph Frey (abt. 1823 – 1877) led a short but interesting life. Born in Germany, in the mid-1820s, he came to settle in New York, probably during the 1830s or early 1840s. His birthday is listed on various documents…
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A Quick Overview of my work under this surname My most recent German immigrants were Joseph Frey (abt. 1823 – 1877) and Anna Elizabeth Horn (abt. 1828 – 1914). It is difficult to be certain about much when looking for records for a family like this one. They lived in a crowded city full of…
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posted Saturday, January 11, 2020 I originally posted this essay on my old Mightier Acorns blog, and I’m reposting it today so you can see how much work can be involved in chasing down immigration information. Please note that the words “Ellis Island” don’t appear anywhere in this story. I have edited this version to…
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A Quick Overview of my work under this surname My wife’s paternal grandmother, June Margery Shuffler (1928-2010), was descended from several families of Scandinavian immigrants on her mother’s side. There are several challenges involved in trying to research these families and create accurate profiles on WikiTree. There are language issues, leading to inconsistency in the…
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posted Tuesday, November 11, 2014 Note: this story is about my great-grandfather, Howard Ray “Dick” Witter (1890 – 1963) and great-grandmother, Hannah Merle (Huff) Witter (1889 – 1984). Twice Honored When I was a kid, I had a plaque on my wall that my father had made. It was a dark piece of wood with…
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A Quick Overview of my work under this surname Witter This is the line of my paternal grandmother, Nancy G (Witter) Callin. I’ve been able to follow her paternal line back to Abraham Witter (1786-1882) with reasonable confidence. As it happens, renowned scholar and genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills posted her research on Abraham and his…
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The Other Side For the seven years leading up to the publication of The Callin Family History, I mostly focused on my paternal ancestry. I had a head start on my Callin line, thanks to the 1911 version of the Callin Family History, and my goal was to find as many of the descendants of…
Mightier Acorns 