Is a Witch Hanging from the Family Tree?

Lineage Society for Descendants of Early Witches

Oct 9, 2009

Lots of people have witches hanging from their family Tree. There's even a lineage society for female descendants of colonial American witches.

Dr. Kimberly Nagy of Downers Grove, IL, often works with witches and their descendants. Nagy is the registrar general of the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches, an organizationwhich tries to preserve the names of those accused of witchery in colonial America.

As registrar, it is part of Dr. Nagy’s job to help applicants do their genealogy and present the documented lineage necessary to qualify for membership. This is serious business.

These witch ancestors are not the hideous women in pointy hats riding broomsticks with their black cat that are found trick and treating on Halloween. Instead, most of them took care of house, husband and children just as their peers did. They sewed, did laundry and cooked and served regular food and it didn’t come from a boiling cauldron into which spiders, lizards, pig guts, mouse tails and snake eyes had been dumped.

Locating Witch Descendants

One of the goals of the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches is to link up with family researchers who descend from colonial Witches at Salem, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. The organization wants to locate living female descendants of all these witches.

To qualify for membership, a woman must be at least age 16 and present a proven pedigree showing descent from an accused American witch before 1700. Every generation must be documented. The witch ancestor may be either female or male.

The organization’s annual assembly is held in April in Washington, D C. It usually includes a business meeting, banquet and program.

Witchcraft in Colonial America

The Salem witches are the best known of America’s colonial witches, but they weren’t the only ones accused. Nineteen witches were hanged at Chelmsford in 1645. This was an era of superstition and great fear of anything which couldn’t be explained. In addition, people who were considered nonconformist in their religious beliefs and social interaction were suspect.

That’s not all. Some of those accused of witchcraft, then found guilty and hung, were actually hallucinating because of unknowingly using poisonous herbs to treat illness, or because that year’s wheat crop had been full of mold. Others were epileptics.

Witches in Europe

It is estimated that more than 25,000 persons accused of witchcraft were burned at the stake in Germany between 1600 and 1850. Several thousand were executed in Scotland during the 1500s and 1600s. Several hundred witches were hanged in England during the same time period.

(A companion article lists accused witches who are qualifying ancestors for persons who want to join the Associated Daughters of Early American Witches.)

The copyright of the article Is a Witch Hanging from the Family Tree? in Genealogy is owned by Rosemary E. Bachelor. Permission to republish Is a Witch Hanging from the Family Tree? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.