It’s common to hear people brag about being the descendant of witches in the pagan community. In fact, it’s one of the most basic brags ever — to the point that it seems that almost every Wiccan you meet comes from some long line of practicing witches. Most popularly, the witches of the Salem Witch Trials appear to be the mothers and fathers of every new age witch in the pagan community — if you believe every person that makes claim to their descendancy. The simple fact of the matter is that while many of these claims are made-up on the spot for attention, many of us could in fact have “witches” in our ancestry.
Witchcraft Family Tree
Witchcraft Family Tree is a site that documents the profiles of notorious and famed witches in history — most of whom were accused of witchcraft as a crime and treated unfairly. Each witch profile comes with genealogical information about any descendants as well as their descendants descendants. Surnames of interest are also provided on each profile, to assist you in your own family tree research.
This site also specifies when profiled witches left no descendants, marking them as having no living descendants — which would make any claims to their descendancy false. This is useful in preventing false information from spreading about people in history who were unjustly accused of witchcraft as a crime — whether or not they were truly witches.
Make your own family tree
Start your own family tree and trace your proven ancestors until you reach a time in history that is notable for having witch trials. Since the Salem trials are the most popular, we’ll use that as an example. The year 1692 was when several people were murdered on false accusations of practicing witchcraft. These trials, of course, took place in Salem Massachusetts. However, there were trials in Connecticut and other surrounding states in the same time frame, and even prior. Pay attention to the era and geography of your ancestors. If you find yourself in an area where witch trials were held, in the appropriate years, then start digging deeper to see if there is a possibility that they were involved in a witch trial.
Use Witchcraft Family Tree to check your research
If you believe you descend from an accused witch in history, then search their name on Witchcraft Family Tree. If they have a profile on the site, it will tell you who the named witch’s descendants are if they had any. Keep in mind that this is a new site, so profiles are being added as frequently as possible.
