>From : Beatrice Fortin <albee@pivot.net> >I too, have been reading up on everthing I can put my hands on, about the >Salem witch trials, as I had 4 ancestors who were tried and convicted, one was even put to death by hanging and a friend of mine, has an ancestor as well. I haven't been able to learn very much about them and I'd like to learn more details of their lives and etc. I have a collateral ancestor who was accused, tried, and convicted of witchcraft in Newbury a couple of years before the Salem (or Essex County) Hysteria. I have a suggestion for looking for information about your "witchy" ancestors: try looking in family genealogies and town histories, or go straight to the collections of county court records. While my ancestor appears in a number of books about witch accusations in New England, I found that each editor omitted certain things that illuminated the circumstances of my ancestor's life, the trial, and the aftermath. I wouldn't know any of these rather siginficant details if I'd stuck to books about the witch trials. I'm not saying ignore the books about the trials; on the contrary, I've learned a great deal from the pens of such scholars as John Demos and David Hall. I only recently acquired _Witchcraft, Magic and Religion in 17th Century Massachusetts_ by Richard Weisman and wish I'd read it long ago because I found that Professor Weisman' was the only one to adequately investigate and understand the specific social dynamics involved in the trial and persecution of my ancestor (as opposed to anyone else). Some of the books on the subject are not as worthy of consideration as the works of these scholars. I have found that besides consulting those books, it was helpful to look at local histories, family histories, and primary records (ir printed collections thereof). Also, I learned a great deal by asking the local librarians and town historians for help. Often such people are aware of oral tradition that helps to clarify evidence, or they know about obscure details or sources. For example, one time I asked a direction of special collections (who specialized in Haverhill and Newbury and Newburyport) his opinion of a theory advanced by a member of a genealogical society about where my ancestor's house was located. He took out a copy of her sentence from a shelf (she'd been sentenced to house arrest with ball and chain and the only time she could come out was to walk to church by the shortest route accompanied by the minister). He noted the details in the sentence about the route she could take, and related it to the buildings known to have been standing in the seventeenth century, and deftly disproved the new theory in under five minutes. By the way, I was wondering if anyone has read _Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in America_ by Elizabeth Reis (Editor) Kriste Lindenmeyer Diane L. Murphy? I apolgize if the book already has been discussed on the list. Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail