Salem Witch Trials: Colonial America in 1692 Project

It is always sad to know that someone in your family was accused as a witch and died as a result.

The Salem Witch trials were supersitious and fanatic. It is mysterious that
sometimes these innocent people have been lost to the fears of a particular group of fanatics.

Ethel

It is always sad to know that someone in your family was accused as a witch and died as a result.

The Salem Witch trials were supersitious and fanatic. It is mysterious that
sometimes these innocent people have been lost to the fears of a particular group of fanatics.

Ethel

It is always sad to know that someone in your family was accused as a witch and died as a result.

The Salem Witch trials were supersitious and fanatic. It is mysterious that
sometimes these innocent people have been lost to the fears of a particular group of fanatics.

Ethel

It is always sad to know that someone in your family was accused as a witch and died as a result.

The Salem Witch trials were supersitious and fanatic. It is mysterious that
sometimes these innocent people have been lost to the fears of a particular group of fanatics.

Ethel

It is always sad to know that someone in your family was accused as a witch and died as a result.

The Salem Witch trials were supersitious and fanatic. It is mysterious that
sometimes these innocent people have been lost to the fears of a particular group of fanatics.

Ethel

As I like to point out, the Witch Trials should have been a lesson learned by our society in the United States (all societies, really), that we can end up throwing away a lot of good people as a result of overblown fears.

Sadly, it's a lesson that often seems to be ignored. Labeling all Muslims as terrorists or profiling all Hispanics as criminals are in my view key areas where this lesson hasn't been learned by today's society in the United States. The US isn't alone in this, of course, with Russians doing the same thing to those people in Moscow that look like they are from the Caucasus, perennial problems with ethnic discrimination (skin color, antisemitism, discrimination against Palestinians in Israel, etc.) across the world - these are all areas where the lessons of the Salem Witch Trials have either never been properly shown or have been largely ignored, often in favor of the same populism that spawned the fanaticism that was seen in Salem.

The question in my mind is which society will be the first to actually learn the lesson. In that sense, I fear for the direction that a large portion of America has gone over the past 9 years - in our sadness, anger, and fear, we've lost our ability to remember that America was supposed to be more than just another sovereign state.

Of course, all this is just my personal opinion. And opinion is always weaker than actual fact. That's why this project, in my mind, is an important one. -Ben.

Private User

Can you find the URL for your ancestress and post it here so we can add it to the Project?

Would you like to join it as a collaborator?

Hi,
I've just discovered that I'm related to Susannah Martin who was was 1st cousin once removeds husbands 6th great aunts husbands mother!
Is there anything I can do in this project?

Hi Suzanne:

There is plenty that you can do. Plenty of research still to be done. Feel free to jump in and fix anything that looks amiss, based on what you find.

Suzanne,

It's always exciting to find a "witch in the family!"

That's why I've joined you as a collaborator to "two" projects:

http://www.geni.com/projects/The-Witch-in-My-Family
http://www.geni.com/projects/Salem-Witch-Trials-Colonial-America-in...

As a collaborator you will get an "add to project" ability for every profile you have "edit" rights to (co-manager).

To add to Project:

- go to the profile
- More actions (drop down)
- Add to Project (drop down)
-- List (highlight)
-- Close

X to remove a profile from Project.

Suzanne,

It's always exciting to find a "witch in the family!"

That's why I've joined you as a collaborator to "two" projects:

http://www.geni.com/projects/The-Witch-in-My-Family
http://www.geni.com/projects/Salem-Witch-Trials-Colonial-America-in...

As a collaborator you will get an "add to project" ability for every profile you have "edit" rights to (co-manager).

To add to Project:

- go to the profile
- More actions (drop down)
- Add to Project (drop down)
-- List (highlight)
-- Close

X to remove a profile from Project.

Suzanne,

It's always exciting to find a "witch in the family!"

That's why I've joined you as a collaborator to "two" projects:

http://www.geni.com/projects/The-Witch-in-My-Family
http://www.geni.com/projects/Salem-Witch-Trials-Colonial-America-in...

As a collaborator you will get an "add to project" ability for every profile you have "edit" rights to (co-manager).

To add to Project:

- go to the profile
- More actions (drop down)
- Add to Project (drop down)
-- List (highlight)
-- Close

X to remove a profile from Project.

Thanks Erica,
There's an almighty mess on the North side which I would love to untangle.

When the witches are afoot, there's probably messes on the East, South and West sides, too.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Witches turning into feet? Sounds like a spell gone terribly wrong... :)

An interesting project would be to include wannabe witches and wizards... Belinda Montgomery et al, Harry Potter et al, Druids, etc...along with not only the Salem "witches" but others who were called witch/wizard or sorcerer, whether real or not.

The wannabe witches vs. the don't-wannabe witches? Interesting dual project idea... :)

im stephanie, im 16 years old my mom is lynne allen and my dad is fred r allen. am i related to Martha Allen Carrier?

You people are anywhere that these people were not witches and none of them, who were exucuted ever confessed to being a witch. In fact only one confessed, a child, because her mother told her to, in order to save her life. It seems if you confessed, they let you live. By the way John Proctor was nothing like John Proctor portrayed in The Crucible. He was older, not having an affair. it was a play made into a movie based on some historical facts and to this day they don't know what made the child lie. Maybe because of the slaves woman. maybe it was a game, gone bad, perhaps something to do with the food going bad, there are many theorise. Not to mention all of the accused witches were from what is now know as Danvas and some feel certain ministers wanted their land . Dirty business back then . One gentleman accused his wife and she was killed . Then when the ac used him he said there no such things as witches. Changed his story didn't he. Didn't save him. They pressed him to death. And he was a very elderly man .

Hi Stephanie.
If your personal profile was not a "public one", some of us might be able to tell you if you are at least related to us. You might want to change your profile. As an Allen too, among other well-placed colonialists, there is a good chance we are related. I am related to most of the players in Salem, as many here (I am guessing) are, so your chances are good for familial connections.

Here's where all your hard work on projects is starting to pay off.

My 12 year old granddaughter had to do a family history project for school. We happened to see "The Crucible" movie on TV and I told her about John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse and family who are her ancestors. I showed her how to access Geni to get the references, and she sent an email to her teacher telling her about all the resources for their current Early American history projects. Thanks curators and all! Mary

That's great Mary! I can't wait for my kids to get projects like that so that they can really experience tools like Geni and Wikipedia. I hope all school kids find out about Geni!

Yay, Mary! great lesson for your daughter and for her class.

Maria, I wish I had a daughter 12 years old. This is my oldest granddaughter :) Her Mom is 36. Grandma Mary

LOL, Mary, my baby is 40 with 3 of her own. I don't know how she got that old that fast! I don't feel old enough to have a teen-aged granddaughter. How did my daughter get old enough to have a teenager?

Your post clearly says granddaughter, but I looked Brendan's post just below it and typed daughter.

Regards,
Grandmama Maria

I never had time to do genealogy until the kids were grown, and I retired, so that is a plus of getting older :) Mary

That's really cool, Mary. My 13 yr-old granddaughter is very interested in genealogy sine her mom & I started researching a little over a yr ago. She even comes with us to classes & has joined our genealogy group & is doing her own research project on one of her dad's relatives. It's so nice to know that all my hard work will be carried on & appreciated after I'm gone!
I still need to watch "The Crucible", I have the DVD, but keep forgetting, Rebecca Nurse is my 8th great grandmother, so I really need to do that!

The only thing is the movie is just that. Not truly, as movies often are, just that a movie based on some facts. John Proctor was not a womanizer. Plus he was no Daniel Day Lewis! He was much older. The basic story is true. They still don't know for sure what caused the children to do what they did. there are several theories on the subject. Just another mystery but I am glad your grand daughter is interested in her family history. I hope she stays interested.

I was always interested in it but didn't get heavey into it until I was grown up .

Whether historically accurate or not, you know how kids seem to relate to seeing a movie or show rather than a book. Whatever gets their interest. We saw Alec Baldwin in a show the other day, and I told the kids that he was their cousin because he was related to John Howland too. The 7 year old wants me to find if he is related to Hans Solo (Harrison Ford). He was excited when I told him we had Fords in our tree, so another project. A big Star Wars fan:)