Marriage Document ~ Leads to Salem Witch Trials

Growing up I can't remember ever hearing about any ancestors past my great grandparents. I don't think I ever really thought about the direct line back. 

This week I found the marriage documents of my husband's 8th great grandparents. 

Joseph S Lemon
BIRTH 26 JUN 1692 • Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
DEATH 1750 • Massachusetts, United States
&
Elizabeth Phillips
BIRTH 23 AUG 1692 • Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA
DEATH 1775 • Massachusetts, USA

This is one of the several lines he (and therby our children) can lay claim to their United Empire Loyalists (UEL) family history. We have not submitted the necessary documentation to verify  their ancestors. If we did they could receive a Certificate of Lineal Descent, and use UE after their name. 

        ***If you want more information about this check sources below***

Chris' 8th great grandparents were both born 330 years ago in 1692. As I considered this I realized I can't even imagine what life looked like at the time. 

They were born in Charleston, a neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem Witch Trials were occurring during this time. 

"Boston was founded in 1630. In 1692, many people involved in the witchcraft delusion lived here, including judges, ministers, accusers, accused, and skeptics." 1

Both of his 8th great grandparents were infants when 

"In January of 1692, nine-year-old Betty Parris and eleven-year-old  Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece of Salem Village minister Reverend Samuel Parris, suddenly feel ill. Making strange, foreign sounds, huddling under furniture, and clutching their heads, the girls’ symptoms were alarming and astounding to their parents and neighbors. When neither prayer nor medicine succeeded in alleviating the girls’ agony, the worried parents turned to the only other explanation; the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft. As word of the illness spread throughout Salem Village, and eventually Essex County, others began to fall ill with the same alarming symptoms. The afflicted complained disembodied spirits were stabbing them, choking them, and jabbing them with pins. Soon names were cried out as the afflicted began to identify these specters. Neighbors, acquaintances, and total strangers were named in the statements and examinations that followed. Gossip and stories from decades prior were dredged up as fear continued to spread. Over the course of the year 1692, between 150-200 people were jailed for witchcraft. Ultimately, 14 women and 5 men were hanged, one man was tortured to death, and at least give (sic) people perished in prison. This was the largest series of witchcraft trials to ever take place in North America, and would be the last large-scale witch panic to take place in the English colonies." 2

We have watched many shows & read many books about the Salem Witch trials, and never knew we had family connections. 

Trying to understand the world your ancestors lived in!!!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Footnotes:

1 Welcome to Boston. Salem Witch Museum. Retrieved April 30th 2022 from  https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/welcome-to-boston/

2 The 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Salem Witch Museum. Retrieved April 30th 2022 from  https://salemwitchmuseum.com/history-education/

Sources:

The 1692 Salem Witch Trials. Salem Witch Museum. Retrieved April 30th 2022 from  https://salemwitchmuseum.com/history-education/

Welcome to Boston. Salem Witch Museum. Retrieved April 30th 2022 from  https://salemwitchmuseum.com/locations/welcome-to-boston/

Who Qualifies as a Loyalist? The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada. Retrieved April 30th 2022 from 
https://uelac.ca/about/membership/

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

Reminiscing ~ Photos From the Past

Recently my husband and I started sorting the multiple boxes of photos that we had accumulated over the almost 30 years we have been together. Most of the photos were still in the envelopes from the developer with the negatives in the pocket. The rest of the photos were stacked loosely in boxes. Only our favourite photos were in albums.

We planned to put them all in the several photo albums we had purchased. It wasn't too long before we realized that we did not have enough photo albums. 

We also realized that many of the photos that we had been storing over the years were not worth keeping. We had so many duplicate copies of bad photos that our stack of garbage grew and grew and grew.

Many times over the years we have sorted through the photos and pulled out the ones we wanted for whatever project we were involved in. Never did we remove the negatives. The plan was to use them to reprint the photos should we ever desire to do so.

Flash forward to current times. 

The costs associated with reprinting photos from negatives are prohibitive - assuming you can find someone who will do so. It honestly broke my heart to throw the negatives out. At the same time what exactly were we going to do with them?

Heading to the curb for garbage pickup was a very heavy garbage bag half filled with photos and negatives.

Looking at how many printed photos were not good we talked about how great it is that we use digital now. We have 2 digital frames that cycle 100s of photos using a small footprint. 

BUT we still pang for the many different steps of old school photography.

We used to have a darkroom in our basement. Both of our boys learned, from their dad,  to develop the photos they had taken. 

Several years ago we decided the darkroom equipment took up too much room given how easy digital is, and gave it away. 

This photo of our youngest, taken by his older brother, is a perfect example of a photo that could never be reproduced again.

Somehow the original photo OR the printing resulted in two photos merging into one. We aren't sure how it happened, but there is no doubt it couldn't be reproduced in a digital process. 

This photo hangs in our hallway as a remembrance of a perfect moment in time. 

Sorting through old photos & reminiscing about days of old!!!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

When the Records Are Hard To Find ~ Family Name Spelled So Many Ways

I was 29 years old, and pregnant with our 2nd child when I first heard the name Pellack. I was 49 before a DNA match confirmed my grandfather, known as Clyde Robertson, was Max Pellack.

In the years since I have been unable to trace the family back very far. They immigrated from Ukraine in 1909 to Saskatchewan, Canada. 

The name was spelled many different ways over the years making it hard to find all of the records that might be available.  Finding records in Ukraine was a difficult task before the Russian Invasion, and now it's next to impossible. 

I wonder how exactly the name was spelled in Ukraine, but in sounding out the various spellings the pronunciation can be heard. 

Alexander & Mary (nee Maximiw) Pellack - my Great Grandparents

The family name eventually was spelled PELLACK, but over the years it was spelled many different ways. 

On the ship's manifest from the trip to Canada in 1909 the name was spelled PELECH

In the 1911 (their first in Canada) &  the 1916 census the name is spelled PELICK

In the 1926 census the name was spelled PELYCK.

BUT I also found my grandfather enumerated separately (he was also at home with his parents), and the name was spelled PELLACH.

On the homestead records  the name was spelled PELYCK

On the Cummins map the name was spelled PALACK

Trying to find the records when the spelling of the family name keeps changing!!!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Sources:

Library & Archives Canada, Immigration, Passenger Lists, Page 16, Retrieved March 6th 2020 from
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/passenger-lists/passenger-lists-1865-1922/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=5121&fbclid=IwAR0bFKIO58BlaeooRHtWlgBb6yrB7Ii6RlXBMf3dzADF_YdBLfITZJzNJtw

Our Courageous Pioneers : History of Gronlid and Surrounding Districts of Argus, Athol, Edenbridge, Freedom, Maryville, Murphy Creek, Sandhill Creek, Taelman, Taras, Teddington,." (Melfort Saskatchewan: Phillips Publishers , 1991),

Pellack family, 1916, 1921, 1926 Census records, Library and Archives Canada. 

Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, Homestead Documents, received 2017

Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, Cummins Map

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________

Check IT out ~ Stephen King

I work in a public library. 

Check it out is part of my everyday language. 

While shelving the other day I was pondering the phrase CHECK IT OUT, and then I looked at the book in my hand - next I thought check IT out. The book in my hand was a trade paperback copy of Stephen King's IT.  

I couldn't actually check it out because there is a long hold list on it plus I read it many years ago. 

First written in 1986 this book is still super popular. All of his books continue to circulate with long lists of people waiting for their turn. 

As I continued shelving I got to wondering if I am related to Stephen King. That night after work I visited Stephen King's page on famouskin.com  where I discovered we are related by marriage. 

The cue/connection is through Meghan Markle who I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Meghan & I are 10th cousins - she and Stephen are 8th cousin 2x removed. 

Stephen King & I are 7th cousin 1x removed of husband of 7th cousin 3x removed - he & I are related by marriage.

Our family connection took place on September 5th 1907 in Gilford, New Hampshire, USA when Gertrude & Fred got married.

My 7th cousin 3x removed (via my mother's maternal line), 
Gertrude May Merrill
BIRTH 16 JUN 1887 • Meredith, Belknap, New Hampshire, USA
DEATH 11 JAN 1938 • Laconia, Belknap, New Hampshire, USA

married Stephen King's, 7th cousin 1x removed,
Frederick George (Fred) Sanders BIRTH 10 JULY 1873 • Lakeport, Belknap County, New Hampshire, USA DEATH 8 JULY 1944 • Concord, Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA

The descendants through this couple are related to both of us.

While trying to find the sourced connections to add Stephen King's ancestors to my tree this historical fiction book appeared. 

I was not able to find a copy of the  book above in my library system. I found the book below available through our interlibrary loan department. These two books are historical fiction written about the amazing tale of a 3 (or 4) year old girl lost for 4 days in the wilderness where she was cared for by a bear. 

When searchers found her sleeping alone in a bear's den she told the tale of being cared for by the bear.   

Her story has been told over the years, and has been written about in two book: Sarah Whitcher’s Story, by Elizabeth Yates, and The Bear That Heard Crying, by Natalie Kinsey-Warnock and Helen Kinsey.   

   *** If you want to learn more about Sarah (Sally) Whitcher check the sources below***

This little girl is Stephen King's 4th cousin 4x removed via his maternal line. She is my great-grandmother of husband of 7th cousin 3x removed.

Sarah (Sally) Whitcher
BIRTH 8 APR 1778 • Brentwood, Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA
DEATH 1868 • Wentworth, Grafton, New Hampshire, USA

While researching Stephen King's ancestors I discovered he & the Western Author Louis L'Amour are 9th cousins. 

Could these two authors be any different?

This is beyond amusing trivia. 

I shall trot it out at the next library professional development event. 

Collecting amusing antidotes from your connections to share with all those who really have no interest in hearing them!!!

This is why I search - 

Cause ... 

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family you know!

***Any errors are my own. Please send me any updates or corrections via the comments at the bottom of this blog post***

Sources:

Family Relationship of Stephen King to Louis L'Amour. Stephen King Genealogy. Famous Kin. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from 
https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-chart.php?name=19325+stephen+king&kin=32543+louis+lamour&via=30208+henry+sherburne

Famous Kin of Stephen King. Stephen King Genealogy. Famous Kin. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from https://famouskin.com/famous-kin-menu.php?name=19325+stephen+king

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie and Helen Kinsey. The bear that heard crying. New York : Scholastic, 1998, ©1993

New Hampshire’s Sarah Whitcher Meets a Bear in 1783. New England Historical Society. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from
https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/new-hampshires-sarah-whitcher-meets-bear-1783-2/

Reuben Whittier (Whitcher). Family Tree. Geneanet. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?n=whittier&oc=2&p=reuben&type=tree

Sarah Whitcher Sally. Geneanet. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from 
https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=en&pz=susanna&nz=x&ocz=60160&p=sarah&n=whitcher

Sarah Whitcher. View famous kin of Sarah Whitcher. Ancestry of Meghan Markle. Family Group. Meghan Markle Genealogy. Famous Kin. Retrieved April 7th 2022 from https://famouskin.com/family-group.php?name=80923+meghan+markle&ahnum=85

Yates, Elizabeth. Sarah Whitcher's Story. New York, E.P. Dutton [1971]

Links:

Amy Johnson Crow, 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge
https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/

If you reference or use my blog posts in any way please

include a link to the specific blog and

credit http://somehowrelated.blogspot.com/

My blogs are ©Deborah Buchner, 2014 forward.

All rights reserved.

Please & Thank you!

______________________________________________________________