covenrochester

It is not an uncommon thing in American families to trace an ancestor back to one of the women or men executed in the Salem Witch Trials.

It is also possible to recognize spates of Witch names -- both first names and surnames -- appearing in one's own genealogy. If they are present, they are usually not difficult to spot. It won't be just one or two boy or girl names here and there in a generation. It will usually be ALL of the names, more or less. For example, in my maternal line, two English women married into a surname in the 1700s, and suddenly ALL of the children's names started getting awfully witchy. I counted 6 witch names for girls, and 13 witch names for boys all in that generation. If I gave the names, you would immediately find them in genealogy records because it is very uncommon for, say, six brothers and three sisters all to be given such unusual names. Usually a Rebecca or John or Sarah or Matthew or Ruth or Mark or Mary sneaks in there somewhere. Christian Biblical names were very common, and it is likely that one would have had a distinct prejudice against them to avoid them. Some of the unusual witch names continued through successive generations, but most of them did not.

Have a look at your own ancestors' names and see what you can see!

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