What is “Mightier Acorns” about?
I started a family-only genealogy blog in 2007 and called it “Mighty Acorns,” referring to the old poems:
"as an ook cometh of a litel spyr" [a spyr, or spire, is a sapling]
-Geoffrey Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, 1374
"The greatest Oaks have been little Acorns."
-Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia, 1732
"Large streams from little fountains flow, Tall oaks from little acorns grow."
-D. Everett in The Columbian Orator, 1797
(citations courtesy of The Phrase Finder)
My research has shaped the way I think about my roots and origins. When I was a kid, I was fascinated with the notion of finding “important people” in my family tree, but as I found more and more “little acorns” - farmers, teachers, and the dozens upon dozens of silent, unnamed women who are all but erased from their own histories - I came to appreciate the fact that I wouldn’t exist at all without any one of the people hiding in the background of history. To me, the fact that they existed and survived makes them mighty.
In 2014, I decided to open up my work to the rest of the world, and re-branded the new blog as “Mightier Acorns.”
A Busy Decade
I was 42 years old when I launched Mightier Acorns, and I felt like I needed to accomplish a few things. By 2020, I had crossed several big projects off my list:
published a replica of the 1911 Callin Family History (available on Lulu.com in paperback or hardcover)
published my 2016 memoir/novel, Tad’s Happy Funtime (available on Amazon in paperback and e-book)
returned to school at Towson University and finished my Bachelor of Science in Music (vocal performance) - Class of 2020!
published my revised Callin Family History (available on Lulu.com in an 800-page hardcover edition)
published War Poems, a collection of poetry written by my great-great-grandfather, John H. Callin about his experiences as a Union artillery sergeant in the Civil War (available on Lulu.com in hardcover)
narrated and hosted for the Pseudopod horror fiction podcast and Escape Pod, the science fiction podcast
Why subscribe?
I moved this blog over to Substack for a few reasons - it has a combination of features that I hope will make it easier for relatives and unrelated fellow researchers to enjoy my site. If you want a newsletter, you will get two emails in your inbox each week - and you can delete the ones you don’t care about! If you want to see my posts in a feed, Substack has an app for you.
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But a Word of Caution…
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
Before you decide whether to use Substack, however, you should be aware that they have refused to enforce their own Terms of Service (ToS) and remove users who promote and publish racist and openly fascist content on the Substack platform. Google “Substack” and “Nazi problem” and you will see a lot of think pieces on the subject. It’s not a great moment for any of us, and I may decide to move to another platform if I find one that has the features I need and ALSO has the integrity needed to remove users who will use the platform to undermine the fundamental values that my ancestors and I have fought to preserve.
