Thanks to those who defined sawyer for me. That's what I thought it meant, simply fromt eh way the word sounds. Someone who chops down trees or a carpenter. Thanks for that Salem Story reference; I believe I have access to that book and will check it out. Unless this is the piece I've been looking at! Does it happen to have a chapter entitled, "June 10, 1692"? Because taht author claims he presents a connection Greene didn't. I checked. Yup. It has pages 72 through 75. Thanks; one source I don't have to plow through all those books in the library again to identify! Who is the author? (I didn't know I was going to be in a SCHOLARLY debate on this when I zeroxed all that stuff on Bridgett Bishop and the witch trials!) This gets to Kathy's point; yup, this helps - and it adds confusion! The author of "Salem Story" states that on April 12, John Athorne and Jonathan Corwin odered a group of people to jail. These included Edward Bishop "of Salem village Husband". The document is torn, and his wife's name is missing; but the next line unambiguously refers to Bridget Bishop, "the wife of Edward Bushop of Salem Sawyer" (SWP II: 474). This document appears to order the arrest of both Bridget and Edward Jr and Sarah at the same time. But I had thought that Kathy's version is the truth. It matters, because as I wrote before, this document does more to support the notion that Bridget was of the same family as Edward Jr and Sarah than to support the notions that Bridget lived in Salem Town and that Edward Bishop Sr of variously Salem Village and Beverly (and darned close to Salem Town) was not Edward Bishop the sawyer. On that latter point, I'd actually be surprised if Edward Bishop Sr was not at some times and in some respects a sawyer; the man, who owned a good sized farm in the woods, made a living at all manner of things including, it appears, stealing from his neighbors. Salem Story on the previous two pages also relates the story of Christian the wife of John Trask, her quarrel with the Bishops and complaint to Reverend Hale, her clearly pathological emotional state, and her suicide, which was blamed on Sarah Bishop and not on Bridget until the girls got going. The girls had Sarah and Bridget the wives of the two Edwards confused into one person. The question then is, is this Christian the wife of John Trask the same person as Christian Oliver the daughter of Bridget? Christian Oliver may also have used the name Bishop. Is there any evidence either of the identity of the man Christian Oliver/ Bishop married, or of the maiden name or family of John Trask's wife? Things stranger happened among my ancestors who were involved in the Salem witch trials, then a woman with severe depression blaming her inability to sleep on noisy neighbors who happened to be related to her mother by her mother's marriage, becoming distraught, getting in a fight with them over whatever came to mind, complaining to authorities, getting more distraught, and recanting and trying to make up. Other family members who were in on getting people condemned and typically executed did not have obvious mental illness to explain their actions! For instance, the entire family John Willard married into, and Elizabeth Balch's testimony against Bridget and Sarah Bishop. Elizabeth Balch was closely related to Bridget and not at all controversially to Sarah by marriage, as well as being Edward Sr's next door neighbor. She testified that she saw Edward Bishop jr try to throw Sarah from his horse and then rave that she was a witch, and as the woman made no attempt to argue with this, she thought it must be true. She was one of only three or four people whose testimony got the pair condemned to die! They didn't die, because shortly after Bridget was executed they elected to escape from jail. Elizabeth Balch's father in law is supposed to have been helping people escape! William Raymond Jr the father of Paul and son of William who married the daughter of Edward Bishop Sr, testified that for some ungodly reason, he was visiting with Dr. Griggs who was a close member of the Putman faction one afternoon (the Bass River families were supposedly "not in sympathy" with the Puritans, but then none of them ever seem to have felt the same way about anyone or anything especially each other for longer than five minutes), and he saw Dr. Grigg's servant niece have one of her fits! He testified that he found it a most convincing fit. Has anyone ever named a soap opera after Salem? My ancestor William Raymond married for the second time Hannah the daughter of Edward Bishop Sr by his first wife. His grandson, Paul, married a daughter of Freeborn Balch; I think it was Freeborn's brother or his father's brother who married Elizabeth. Then Paul's son, William Raymond, picked up a line from Sudbury descended from a sister, aunt or close cousin of John Willard, and from a first cousin of Rev. Nicholas Noyes. Meanwhile, one of my female direct ancestors took for her second husband, Cotton Mather! Yours, Dora Smith