Exploring "Shirttails"

Meet the Montgomery family

A "shirttail relative" is a distant or honorary relative, such as a fourth cousin or family friend who is treated as a relative. For example, I am “Uncle Tad” in a few households where I bear no familial relationship - so that would make me a “shirttail” to those kids.

As I assembled the Callin Family History for its 2022 publication, chasing down the descendants of James Callin meant that I was adding more and more shirttails to the family tree. These people would not necessarily know that we were related, or might not have had a “Callin” in their family for five or six generations. But thanks to the math of DNA, they are every bit as much a descendant of James Callin as I am.

The Montgomery family

Here’s just one example:

I learned on 30 July 2018 that Elizabeth Callin married Caleb Montgomery in Richland County, Ohio, on 13 August 1822.

I had thought I was done with my Callin Family History research, but this record set me off on a whole new quest - and I wrote about the find and what it meant in a post called Echoes & Rhymes on the old Mightier Acorns blog.

Slowly, as I continued to dig and explore, I was able to piece together the story of James “2nd” Callin’s children and grandchildren, and the lesson I took from all of this was that the common advice to research your ancestors’ “FAN club” (Friends And Neighbors) is vital to uncovering the whole story of the past.

The Montgomery family - Benjamin Montgomery (1766–1841) and Nancy (Ann) Nottingham (1768–1866) were early settlers of Milton Township, just like my Callin ancestors. Three of Benjamin’s and Nancy’s children - Caleb, Jonathan, and Lucinda - married three of James “2nd” Callin’s children: Elizabeth married Caleb, Sarah married Jonathan, and Hugh married Lucinda.

The Callin farm was near the town of Olivesburg, which was named for Benjamin’s daughter, Olive. The History of Richland County says that Benjamin built the first grist mill in the township on the Whetstone, at Olivesburg, in 1817. That book also describes the town in 1821:

"The village of Olivesburg was laid out by Benjamin Montgomery in the year 1816, and called Olivesburg in honor of his oldest daughter, Olive. In 1821, the village contained one tavern, kept by Benjamin Montgomery; one blacksmith-shop, by Abel Montgomery; one tailor-shop, by John Grum; one cabinet-shop, by Thomas Beach; one tannery, by Joseph Burget; one horse-mill and water-mill, by Jonathan Montgomery; one wheelwright-shop, by William Lee, or James Hall, and about the usual per cent of loafers."

Mary Callin, James “2nd”’s wife (mother of Elizabeth, Sarah, and Hugh), was a founding member of the Hopewell congregation, which met in Olivesburg.

The Old Hopewell Presbyterian Church

Dozens of little facts and coincidences of timing that make up the story of my early Callin family in Milton Township are inextricably linked with the Montgomerys - even though we are “only shirttails” to each other.

Milton Township Side-Quests

Montgomery is not the only surname that keeps popping up in Milton Township.

Individuals from the Ferrell family can be found marrying more than one Montgomery, including Olive Montgomery, the sister of Caleb and Jonathan for whom Olivesburg was named. Elizabeth and Caleb’s oldest daughter, Mary, married a Ferrell, too.

Olivesburg is still there, by the way. The Olivesburg General Store has been operating since the 1840s, so all of these people could have visited there at some point.

Olivesburg General Store - founded in the 1840s, when the Callin and Montgomery families still lived there

Later in life, Olive also married Boston Burget, who was probably a relative of the tanner, Joseph Burget, and of Nancy Burget, who married Elizabeth’s brother, Thomas Callin.

In the end, I ran out of time and resources and published what I knew in 2022. But I do take time to circle back with these families to see if I can learn more. One day, I’d like to be able to tell their whole stories. Until then, the best we can do is chase those tantalizing shirttails and see where they lead.

They lead to a lot of places - and a lot of people.

A Purely Maternal Line of Descent

Following the Montgomery line led to dozens of new families as each generation of children proliferated across the country. I will never have time to find them all.

Kim (Butze) Wheelwright (1946–2001) was born in Corvallis, OR, and died in Odgen, UT. She was born the same year as my dad, and we never met. I didn’t start doing research on the Callin Family History until 2015, and I didn’t track down her family’s line until after 2018. But, she and I were 6th cousins. Here’s her line back to our common ancestor:

• Gretchen B Movius (1914-1966) - Mother of Kim Butze

• Gertrude E Bushnell (1883-1977) - Mother of Gretchen B Movius

• Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell (1846-1916) - Mother of Gertrude E Bushnell

• Mary Montgomery (1823-1846) - Mother of Sarah Elizabeth Ferrell

• Elizabeth Callin (1798-1834) - Mother of Mary Montgomery

• James "2nd" Callin (abt. 1779-1820) - Father of Elizabeth Callin

• James “1st” Callin

If you click on this link to James Callin's WikiTree profile, and click the green “Show Descendants” button, you can see that line of descent down to Gertrude E (Bushnell) Froom; and take note that Kim would have to have gone back six generations to know that she had any Callins in her family tree.

As I put this example together, I learned that Kim’s husband, A. Stuart Wheelwright, just passed away last December. If they see this post, I’d like to offer my condolences to his surviving family - particularly his two living daughters. (I did not know that he and Kim had any children until today when I read his obituary. I’m happy to learn my kids have two more 7th cousins, but sad at the price of that knowledge.)

All of this means that in my quest to be thorough, and track down as many of James Callin’s descendants as possible, I opened up an enormous (and possibly endless) number of branching pathways connecting me to total strangers - who may or may not care about any of this history.

Maybe someday some of them will find my work and marvel at the great complexity of it all. I hope so.

Because marveling is the best part!