Here is a look at my Puritan ancestors who lived in Salem, Massachusetts, during the time of the Witch Trials in the 1690s. This is also the story of a family that owned and occupied the same house for ten successive generations. Introduction Years ago, when I embarked on my journey to research my family history, I encountered a branch about which I had very … Continue reading The Pickering Papers

In a previous post, I recounted the discovery of one of my father’s ancestors known in legend as La Bete Canteraine, the beast of Canteriane – a werewolf. However, as I later found out, Hugues III de Campavaine was not the sole member of his family renowned for an active afterlife. Turning my attention to a list of ancestors I had identified as participants in … Continue reading A Ghost Story

When I started exploring my family history nearly 45 years ago, I never imagined that someday I might find a werewolf in my family tree… but here we are! And it does seem appropriate that I would make this discovery in the dog days of August because according to the commercials I keep hearing on the radio, Halloween is just around the corner. Building upon … Continue reading La Bête Canteraine

In an earlier post, I connected my ancestor, Louis de Waudripont, with a minor noble family called the House of Waudripont. Connecting with one branch of nobility often leads to finding more of them. Digging deeper, I uncovered a few new branches containing half-dozen Crusaders and one family line that goes back to Charlemagne. This post focuses on the lineage of Mahaut de Bethune, an … Continue reading The House of Bethune

Two intriguing mysteries have finally been solved. For quite some time, I had been fascinated by the ancestry of two of my 18th-century Belgian forebears, Louis De Wadripont and Maria De Backer. They were not ordinary brick walls in genealogical research, and their origins remained a mystery until last night. Louis and Maria, who married in 1794, piqued my curiosity with their elusive lineages. My … Continue reading Noblesse Oblige

After publishing last night, I found yet more books at Google Books that hold new information regarding my ancestor, the insurrectionist, Jan Van Coppenolle. Thanks to the (new?) translation feature in Google Books, I could quickly decode the data from Latin and French. According to Nouvelle Collection Des Mémoires Pour Servir À L’histoire de France (1853) Ed. Joseph Fr. Michaud The pension amount paid to … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 4

Thanks to the translation feature in Google Books, I was able to learn new information about my ancestor the insurrectionist, Jan Van Coppenolle. He is a 14th great-grandfather on my father’s side who lived and died in the later half of 15th century. Jan is known in some historical accounts as the “Demagogue of Ghent” as he was the bourgeois dictator of that city for … Continue reading My Ancestor, the Insurrectionist – pt 3