Checking In With Our Cousins

Greetings, all!

For the next several months, I expect that most of my effort will be happening "off-camera." Instead of spending my time doing research and compiling a (mostly) weekly report to post here on the blog, I will be putting my energy into the goal of assembling that research in book form.

As I'm doing that, I plan to reach out to as many of the distant cousins I've found as I can and invite them to come and learn about my work. That means that a lot (I hope!) of people will be visiting this site for the first time. If you are one of those people, please allow me to give you a brief tour.

Frequently Asked Questions

"What is 'Mightier Acorns' supposed to mean?"

In October 2014, I decided to create a website where I could share the family history research I was doing. As I explained in my first post here, "From Little Acorns Grow," the name Mighty Acorns came from the old adage, "Tall oaks from little acorns grow." I like the idea that anyone, however small and humble, has the potential to grow and to be mighty, and no matter how mighty we may become, we're all acorns on the same big tree. This blog was my second attempt to start up a family history site - and I had already used the name Mighty Acorns on that first attempt. So I named this site Mightier Acorns.

"My name isn't 'Callin' - so what does this have to do with my family?"

According to the original Callin Family History, James Callin came to the American colonies sometime before the Revolutionary War. He and his brother fought in the Revolution, and two of his sons eventually settled in Ohio between 1810 and 1820. Those two sons had 14 children between them - eight sons and six daughters. 

When I was first starting out on this journey, I shared some of my research with one of my cousins - an actual First Cousin - and he said that it was neat, but "That's really more your family than it is mine." But in reality, every generation shares the same connection to the people in the previous generations. Biology is messy, so you may not be able to state accurately that "50% of your genes come from each parent," but your existence depends equally on each parent - and on their parents, and so on. The truth is, a 6th cousin who descended from several generations of women who happened to change surnames when they married has the same "amount" of connection to James Callin as I have.

So, if I have found you and your immediate family through several generations of female descent, changes of surname, or adoption, you are legitimately as much of a "Callin" as I am. 

"Why do you have so many links and sites?"

Over the last six years, I've tried to attract interest in the work I'm doing from the people who I think would be most interested in it: the varied and far-flung group of distantly related people I address as "cousin"! As I see it, the challenge is to give a group of strangers who share a tiny bit of DNA a place to learn about their connections to each other and to make it as easy as possible for them to engage with the research I've done.

There are four main places where you can explore on your own, or reach out to me if you want to know more about our family connections:

1. This Blogger site -

 

If you're reading this post on a desktop computer, you should see a search bar labeled "Search This Blog" and a simple form to contact me labeled "Contact Form" - since you are alive, and I don't post information about living people, your best bet for finding what I've written about your branch of the family is to put the name of a deceased grandparent, parent, uncle, etc. into the Search and see what comes up. 

 

If you are still lost, put your question into the Contact Form and I'll get that as message to my "mightieracorns" Gmail address. I will also see any comments you make at the bottom of any blog post on this site.

2. Facebook -

 

I'm easy to find on Facebook (there's only one Tad Callin, to the relief of many!) - if you send a friend request and/or a Messenger request, I'll see those. We have a public page called Mighier Acorns on Facebook, and a private group called Callin Family History. If you request to join the private group, you will be asked how you are related to the Callin family; I moderate those requests, so if you aren't sure how to answer, let me know that, too.

3. Twitter -

 

I created a @MightierAcorns Twitter presence for those who object to Facebook; I mainly use that to publicize this blog and to follow historians and genealogists who Tweet.

4. Ancestry -

 

This may seem obvious, but I have several public trees available on Ancestry.com; most of the posts on this blog are based on the work documented in the "Callin Family History - G.W. Callin 1911" tree. 

You can explore some of the other places I have linked to over the years in the toolbar on the right side of this blog page. I have put some work into editing WikiTree, I support Wikipedia, and I've published a couple of books.

Speaking of "books" - what is going on with this Callin Family History? 

 Around 2015, I edited and re-published the 1911 Callin Family History that was compiled by my 3rd-great Uncle, George W. Callin. The copies that we had floating around were worn and they had a lot of hand-written notes penciled in the margins. As I found more and more distant cousins, there was a growing interest in getting more copies to more people. 

(You will notice that I have links to Lulu.com and Amazon, where you can buy the hardcover or paperback copies of that book if you want them; you can also find a free PDF version in several places on the internet. I posted it in the Callin Family History group on Facebook, and it can be found through a handful of other Callin-related websites that I don't manage. I'd be happy to email a copy of the PDF to you if you ask me to. If you purchase a copy, the royalties go to me; I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about those sales figures - let's just say I'm not relying on that income to pay the bills!)

After publishing that book, I realized that we were sorely overdue for an update - more than a century had gone by, and I figured the ~65 names in the original book had probably grown by now. I decided to start the "Callin Family History - G.W. Callin 1911" tree with those 65 names and estimated that once I had waded through the Ancestry hints and verified Uncle George's research, I should have a respectable update to publish. The tree currently contains the names of 22,140 People, with 2,615 Photos, 1,375 Stories, and 85,909 Records attached to them. 

Obviously, not all 22,140 People will be included in the final draft. About 10% of those People are direct descendants of James Callin; about twice that number are spouses and in-laws, not counting the siblings of the spouses. That very big number includes offshoots of the main family that I had to research in order to learn important details about the descendants of James Callin and their spouse. 

Within the covers of my book, I plan to include all of the direct descendants of James Callin I can find, as well as their spouses and their spouses' parents. If the spouses' families intermarried with other branches of the Callin descendants, I'll include those connections as best as I can. This blog has become a sort of "rough draft" of what I want the book to be. If you follow the link to this page - Project: Revising the CFH - you can see in broad strokes what the table of contents will look like.

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As you explore, you'll see that I end every post with a section like this one. Please feel free to share this post or any of the contact info below with your close relatives - siblings, cousins, parents - anyone who might be interested in re-connecting with this side of your family.

"As always...

You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We have many ways to get in touch:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/

a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns

a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns

...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!"

Houston, We Have A Family

Welcome back, cousins!

Today, we will wind up with a look at the youngest of the three daughters of Jonathan Montgomery (1801–1898) and Sarah Callin (1807–1830). There aren't a lot of descendants in the branch, so this will be relatively brief - and that will bring us to the end of this branch of James Callin's family!


III. Mary "Polly" Montgomery (1830–1926)

Polly was born on 23 December 1830 in Richland County, Ohio, and her mother, Sarah, died a week later on 31 December. Polly and her sister were raised by her father and step-mother, Eleanor "Ellen" Eichard (1802–1858).

She married John Houston (1827–1889) in August 1849. As far as I can tell, he was the son of Robert Houston, Sr. (1798–1863) and Sarah Owens (1804–1880), born in Ohio on 27 July 1827. They had their first three children before the Civil War, and their youngest was born a few years after the end of the war; John and Polly raised their family in Butler Township, Richland County.

     A. Sarah "Sadie" Houston (1850–1928)
     B. Nancy Jane Houston (1852–1929)
     C. Dr. Robert R Houston (1860–1890)
     D. Izora M Houston (1869–1944)

Sadie, their eldest, married in 1870, but Nannie remained at home. The three younger Houstons went along when John and Polly moved to Fulton county in 1883, where they lived on a farm four miles northeast of Rochester.

John died on 14 September 1889 and was buried in the Rochester I.O.O.F. Cemetery. Polly eventually (around 1920) moved in with her youngest daughter, Izora Sheets, whose family lived in Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana. Her health deteriorated in her last six years, and she died there on 8 January 1926 at the age of 96. She was buried with her husband in Rochester.

     A. Sarah "Sadie" Houston (1850–1928) was born on 26 May 1850 in Butler, Richland County, Ohio, and grew up on her family's farm. She married John Minor Ford (1848–1910) on 7 April 1870. The son of Joshua Ford (1805–1883) and Elizabeth Hammond (1811–1888), born in Ohio on 6 June 1848.

John and Sadie lived on a farm in Nankin, in Orange township, Ashland County, Ohio, where they raised their two sons. John died on 12 March 1910 in Montgomery, Ashland County, Ohio. Sadie died on 19 August 1928 and they are both buried in the Nankin Cemetery.

     1. Omar Houston Ford (1872–1905) was born on 10 May 1872 in Orange Township, Ashland County, Ohio. He worked on his father's farm, and he died after a lingering illness at only 34 years of age, on 9 January 1905.

     2. Eugene Hammond Ford (1873–1949) was born on 28 October 1873 in Orange Township, Ashland County, Ohio. On 15 June 1899, he married Emma C. Smith (1874–1956). Emma was born on 3 November 1874 in Orange Township, Ashland County, Ohio, the daughter of David Smith (1824–1908) and Rosetta Bales (1834–1923).

The couple lived on a farm in Orange Township and raised their daughters there. Hammond enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Company K, 365th Infantry 92nd Division, returning from France in February 1919 aboard the Olympic.  He was 45 years old at the time.

Hammond died at 75 years of age on 17 June 1949 in Mansfield, Richland, Ohio, and was buried in the Ashland Cemetery. Emma died on 25 November 1956 while she was visiting her daughter, Kathryn, in Akron.

     a. Kathryn Mercile Ford (1902–1993) was born on 20 July 1902 and grew up in Nankin. She married Earva Carl Bender (1901–1988) on 27 December 1930. Earva was the son of Andrew Jackson Bender (1848–1933) and Ida Alice Krum (1856–1941), born on 14 September 1901 in Barberton, Summit County, Ohio.

A farmer all of his life, Earva operated a 300-acre farm in the Cuyahoga Valley and was well known for his sweet corn and other vegetables. He and Kathryn were married for 58 years. He died on 31 December 1988 in Akron, Summit, Ohio, at Akron City Hospital, after a long illness. Kathryn died on 25 March 1993 in Akron. They were survived by numerous nieces and nephews, but no children.

     b. Helen Elizabeth Ford (1911–1994) was born on 8 January 1911 in Nankin. She married Gladimere William Schreck (1909–1987) on 17 November 1935 in Ashland County, Ohio.

William was a general sales manager for a manufacturing company. He died on 22 Oct 1987 in Lake County, Florida. Helen died on 1 January 1994 in Fostoria, Seneca, Ohio.

They were survived by their son and two grandchildren.

     B. Nancy Jane Houston (1852–1929) was born on 3 August 1852 in Richland County, Ohio, and moved with her parents to Fulton County. Nannie remained single her whole life, and in her later life, she suffered from heart trouble and other age-related illnesses. She died at the county infirmary, where she lived when she could no longer care for herself, on 18 September 1929. She is buried in the Rochester IOOF Cemetery.

     C. Dr. Robert R Houston (1860–1890) was born on 4 October 1860 in Richland County. He was a bright scholar and, when he graduated from college, had a very bright future before him. Unfortunately, he suffered from what the local newspaper described as "disease fastened upon his brain," and he died on 16 August 1890 while under treatment at Long Cliff Asylum in Logansport. He is buried in the Rochester I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

     D. Izora M Houston (1869–1944) was born on 29 October 1869 in Blooming Grove, Richland County, Ohio, and grew up on her family's farm in Butler Township.

Izora married Allen Deloss Sheets (1868–1943) on 25 November 1890. He was the son of David Sheets (1819–1874) and Sarah A Nixon (1832–abt. 1915), born on 12 July 1868 in Fulton County, Indiana. Allen's father died when he was small, and Allen grew up in the home of his mother and step-father, Isaac Good, whom she married in 1875.

Allen ran a farm and later worked as a salesman in an agriculture business. The couple raised their son in Rochester before moving to Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, where they appeared on the 1920 U.S. Census. Allen died on 13 May 1943 in Elkhart County and Izora followed soon after on 1 April 1944. They are buried in the Violett Cemetery in Goshen.

They were survived by their son.

     1. Everett Houston Sheets (1903–1969) was born on 17 January 1903 in Rochester, Fulton, Indiana, and his family moved to Goshen by the time he was 17. There, he met and married Edna M Glines (1900–1991) daughter of George S Glines (1858–1913) and Cora M Pindell (1865–1948), on 20 May 1922. Edna was born in Union, Branch, Michigan, on 18 August 1900, and she grew up in Mason, Branch County.

The couple settled in Elkhart, where Everett owned and operated a cabinet shop at his home address for many years. He died unexpectedly at his home in Elkhart on 5 November 1969. Edna died on 26 May 1991, and they are buried in Violett Cemetery in Goshen.

They were survived by their son and two grandchildren.

     a. Ronald Dean Sheets (1933–2008) was born on 14 August 1933 in Goshen, Indiana. He attended Concord High School in Elkhart and worked at the former Howk Motorcycle Shop in Goshen. He was a Korean War Army veteran, having served from 10 July 1956 to 19 July 1958. He loved motorcycles and collected knives. Along with his wife, he lived in the Goshen/Elkhart area for many years before moving to Marshall, Arkansas.

Ronald died on 3 August 2008 at the Veteran's Administration hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife, two sons, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

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If you're new to my blog, you probably don't know how much I love unusual names, and "Gladimere Schreck" is probably the best name I have found since "Zelpha Hoot" or "Thor Day." (Willadean Thunder, though; that one's pretty awesome, too!)

But - once again I think I have arrived at the point in this ongoing project where I can start compiling everything into a manuscript for the Book! As I said in "The Other Montgomery Connection," there don't appear to be any more "missing" children from the families of either John or James (the Brothers Callin, who moved to Ohio in the 1810s). The only other breakthrough I can anticipate that might delay the book any further would be to find their father, James, the Revolutionary War soldier whose records still elude us.

And if I found that, well, that would be awesome.

As always, if you've found one or more of your relatives mentioned in this blog, please get in touch. You can comment below (anonymous comments are usually not as helpful), or email "mightieracorns" at Gmail.com.

We have many ways to get in touch:

a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/MightierAcorns/
a Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/MightierAcorns
a Ko-Fi cup - https://ko-fi.com/mightieracorns


...and if you prefer a private group, we still have the Callin Family History group on Facebook for "cousins only" (there will be a question about how you're related to the family before you can join).

Until next time... Happy Hunting!