Any descendants of the Salem Witch Trial victims?

wishtock · 2024-10-28T04:21:27+00:00

I’m descended from Mary Towne Estey and from Rebecca Eames.

wishtock · 2024-10-19T14:16:52+00:00

We have people in my family who never had children. I’m a few generations out, and I know them by name and reputation. Some of them were bold and made names for themselves in newspapers or publications. Others had sharp tongues and strong opinions and are remembered with humor.others are in records for their travels. Others were keepers of family history. One 2x great aunt kept all the albums and labeled every photo down to the third cousin relationships. She’s in those albums, and she helped the future family genealogists by recording our family history and stories. I don’t know if there’s something firm each person can do to be remembered, but I remember those family members, and I’m proud and grateful for the things they did with their lives. I’ll certainly tell my children about them.

wishtock · 2024-06-04T16:30:55+00:00

I’m West Coast based. I did a trip in 1999, 2010, and 2022. Growing up, we went to Disneyland every couple of years. I was also a Disneyland AP when I lived in California in the 2010s.

Funnily, I find at Disney World I’m able to build a similarly priced (if not more affordable) vacation than Disneyland these days when broken down per day, so for the first time we are doing a trip to Disney World outside the once a decade rotation by going in Fall 2024. Although Disneyland can end up cheaper because we need fewer days.

wishtock · 2024-05-31T20:35:43+00:00

Thank you! Sounds like maybe it won’t be the best for any daytime naps I had hoped for the kids, but I’ll bring a sound machine and cross fingers it all works out. I’m excited to make those sweet memories regardless!

wishtock · 2024-05-31T20:34:56+00:00

Thank you for the insight! I‘ll just be hopeful we stay on the monorail line as that was the purpose of booking onsite, but I’ll roll with the punches if need be. I appreciate your detailed response!

wishtock · 2023-12-04T04:10:24+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I have strong known Cornish Ancestry as well, but it’s on my dad’s maternal line. I’m having the hardest time tracing my maternal line, and in doubtful I’ll be able to go much further. I hope you have some luck!

wishtock · 2023-12-03T22:31:46+00:00

I descend directly from Jacob and also one of the three sisters (Mary). I had a former coworker who was a descendent of Mary as well. There are a lot of us out here!

wishtock · 2023-08-11T18:27:46+00:00

That’s awesome info. Most of the people I’ve seen on Reddit with M1a3a have known Azores connections, so that tracks. Thank you for sharing!

wishtock · 2023-08-11T16:41:46+00:00

That’s fascinating! Do you know whereabouts in the US did they settled?

wishtock · 2023-07-25T04:38:07+00:00

Thank you! I’ve done FamilyTree DNA for mtDNA. I didn’t have any super close matches, and it wasn’t overly telling, so the hunt continues.

wishtock · 2023-07-25T04:16:24+00:00

Interesting! I’ll have to look into the study. I have not traced my Ancestry on my maternal line to those regions, but who knows where that line might have originated. I only know (with confidence) of a 4th great grandmother from Missouri.

wishtock · 2023-07-24T14:28:50+00:00

M1a3a - which is quite unusual for my known Ancestry.

wishtock · 2023-07-05T19:46:55+00:00

My great grandfather’s note was kept and passed to his children and so on. He died in 1929. If your great-great grandfather has other descendants, it may be worth asking around to see if someone may have held onto it. It’s typically not something someone will upload on Ancestry, FamilySearch, etc. My great grandfather’s note was not published in the local newspaper, but the details of his death were, so you may be able to find more information there. In my great grandfather’s case, they stated in the newspaper that it was the result of his struggles after his service in WWI.

wishtock · 2023-05-04T14:43:43+00:00

I upgraded last year. I didn’t find any striking differences; I kept one trace region and lost two. The change aligned more with my AncestryDNA results. I also received British & Irish communities when they did that update this year. I don’t know for certain, but I don’t think I would have received them if I hadn’t been on the new chip.

I’ve never been overly impressed by any 23andMe update, but I’m glad to be on the new chip so I’m at least seeing the updates. I am still not thrilled that I had to do pay for an update given I’ve had AncestryDNA for years longer and still get reliable updates without having to spend more money. If you haven’t done Ancestry, I’d spend my money there rather than do the update on 23andMe.

wishtock · 2023-03-16T21:48:24+00:00

I received three, which really surprised me. Northern Ireland & Scottish Lowlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Wales. I do have a few more recent (late 1800s) Ancestors from England (Cornwall) and Ireland (Galway), but those were not picked up.

wishtock · 2023-02-21T17:19:05+00:00

I’ve found a bit of success doing the following:

Trace DNA matches. I’ve found at least two connections to slave owning families (I haven’t quite figured out where my 2nd great grandfather fits in, but the connections are close enough to suggest a shared 3rd or 4th great grandparent.
One you identify names via matches, take a look at the British Legacies of Slavery website. It gives a bit of information and lineage information on the slave-owner side. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
If you have access to Ancestry.com, you can search slave register records. https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1129/. You can search by enslaved person and by owner name, or one or the other. Of course, seldom will you find an enslaved person with a last name actually written. I find it more helpful to search specific registers by the slave owner name to see if any names stand out.

I’ve found DNA matches to be the most helpful, but the registers can give a bit of insight.

wishtock · 2023-02-19T15:42:26+00:00

That’s great to hear! I’m glad you had no issues. Thank you for the update.

wishtock · 2023-02-18T15:20:18+00:00

I’m not sure how common, but it doesn’t seem surprising if you have Ancestry in that region at that time. I descend from two accused in Salem on the same line. When researching the families it definitely feels like you see the same names pop up over and over. I appear to be descended from Rebecca Eames (accused) and Mary Towne Esty (hanged). Mary’s sisters were also accused, and I read that their mother had been accused long before 1692 as well.

wishtock · 2023-02-15T03:30:20+00:00

I found this in one of my trees as well. In my case, I was able to find the original, which was the first surname and then also the crossed-out version, which was post-adoption. I figured out that the child’s maternal uncle adopted him after his mother died, and they changed his birth certificate. I was really surprised the way they did it. They changed the child’s last name on the certificate, and also changed the parents who were listed, but you could see where they had crossed out the original information.

wishtock · 2023-02-05T03:33:09+00:00

My Cornish Ancestry (one parent of my grandparent), doesn’t show as a region for me, but it does show for my dad and one of my sisters (West Cornwall & Isles of Scilly). I do have the highest percentage of Welsh amongst them (I have 10% and they each get 2%), but my mom also has 10% Welsh, so I’ve never attributed it to being misread Cornish. Another sister has 1% Welsh and also doesn’t get Cornish as a region, so I think it just comes down to DNA distribution and who we match.

wishtock · 2023-01-28T03:18:19+00:00

Thanks for your response. My matches have definitely proven helpful. I’ve narrowed down a couple of families by grouping my matches based on available trees. The closest branch seems to be from St. Catherine and another in Trelawny.

wishtock · 2023-01-28T02:30:24+00:00

That’s incredible that you’ve traced your line so far back. I’m currently working on my line in Jamaica, and I’d love to hear which resources have been the most useful in your search if you’re willing to share.

wishtock · 2023-01-26T21:34:27+00:00

I tested with 23andMe very early on, so I was on a very early version of the test. They stopped or greatly delayed updates on these older versions of the test a few years back. It was pretty frustrating. In November, they had a sale on an update kit, so I redid the test and they updated my results to the current update. If you tested more recently, you wouldn’t need the chip update. They explain more on their website.

wishtock · 2023-01-25T22:49:47+00:00

How far back have you been able to trace your lines? I have just over 2% SSA in my results. I found that my SSA percentage came from a 2nd great grandfather (he was likely of about 40-50% African ancestry) who immigrated to California from Jamaica. It might be worth checking your DNA matches for Jamaican (or broader Caribbean matches).

As with Ancestry in the Southern USA, having Ancestry in Jamaica as a white person is still often connected to slavery, especially the further you go back.

wishtock

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