Genealogy Start your own family tree

[Brian]

The Mormon web site is a good place to start looking for you family history

http://www.familysearch.org/

GenCircles has been around for more than 4 years

http://www.gencircles.com/

Genes Reunited is the UK’s largest family tree, genealogy and ancestry site

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/genesreunited.asp

These are free search engines!!

Brian:sonic:

[Jason]

If anybody needs any help,then please let me know..........Becky has done her family tree and found her mothers long lost brother,they didn't know about each other for 58 years,we had a reunion in Blackpool in 2003,quite an emotional time.
It was all done as a surprise to Becky's mum as she had no idea we was taking her there for that reason,as far as she knew she was going to watch a show and stop over for a couple of nights.

I am sure she would give you some good pointers and maybe do some research for you.......she went back to something like c1850 on hers!!

PM me or Email ziegan2004@yahoo.co.uk

[takersbabe]

done my family tree dont want to find any of mine they are all ***** lol

[Kiki]

My sister did ours and found that my great , great grandfather was an Earl!

[Brian]

The wife thought she was related to the Alice Spedding a Lancashire Witch in the 1640's

I think she is to

Brian

[Jason]

Never heard of that Pendle Witch!!

Alice Nutter yes,but not Spedding.

[Brian]

It was Anne Whittle ("Old Chattox") her relation, the wifes mum was a Whittle but changed to Spedding when she married

Brian:end:

[Jason]

ah right,the name just didn't ring a bell!!!!

[takersbabe]

Originally Posted by JASON

Never heard of that Pendle Witch!!

Alice Nutter yes,but not Spedding.

im related to alice nutter somehow from my dad's side of the family

[janet]

Did these witches really exist or were they just characters from the book Mist Over Pendle?

[takersbabe]

no they were real women hun they were hung in lancaster jail

[Brian]

In 17th century England there was a great fear of witchcraft brought about in part by King James I who believed that a curse had been put on him by witches that almost caused his ship to sink whilst at sea. As a direct result of this he instructed that the Bible he had commissioned to be translated into a new version carry a warning against witches. It was at the direct instruction of King James I that the words 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live' were added to the Bible at Exodus 22:18

In the year 1612, within the forest of Pendle, there lived many poor, uneducated people existing in abject poverty. Amongst these were two aged ladies known as Old Mother Demdike and Chatox. They would have been little more than decrepit, deluded peasants. Demdike, whose real name was Elizabeth Southerns, lived in squalor at Malkin Tower with her daughter Elizabeth Device and her grandchildren, Alison, James and Jennet. Chatox, whose real name was Anne Whittle, lived in equally poor conditions in a cottage close to Demdike with her daughters Anne Redfearn and Bessie Whittle. They grubbed a living by begging and mumbled threats of witchcraft to persuade local people to give them food. They were basically a group of socially inadequate wasters pretending to be witches in order to trick people into handing them goods or money.

In an act of desperation Bessie Whittle broke into Malkin Tower, the home of the Demdike clan and stole some oatmeal and items of clothing. When Alison Device, the granddaugher of Demdike, found out she lodged a complaint with the local magistrate. When Bessie Whittle was charged with theft she made a counter-complaint stating that Old Mother Demdike and her clan were practising witchcraft. Alison Device then accused Chatox and her family of conducting similar satanic practices and so began the infamous story of the Lancashire witches.

The entire Demdike and Chattox clans were arrested, charged with witchcraft and transported to the dungeons at Lancaster Castle where they were locked up in chains. Old Mother Demdike perished in the cells at Lancaster before the trial began. The trial itself was recorded for posterity by Thomas Potts the Clerk to The Justices. His record of the proceedings survives to this day and is titled 'Wonderfull Discoverie Of Witches In The County Of Lancaster'.

The end result of The Trail of The Lancashire Witches was that nine of the accused were taken to the gallows and hanged. The evidence against them was mainly from nine year old Jennet Device whose testimony included statements that Demdike and Chatox had talked to frogs and flown round on broomsticks etc.

In 1633 there was another round-up of supposed witches in Pendle. This time seventeen people were found guilty on the testimony of another young child, eleven year old Edmund Robinson. However, amongst those making the accusations of witchcraft was Jennet Device now aged 30 years. The boy Edmund Robinson later retracted his story. The accused, though originally found guilty and exhibited at The Fleet Prison in London, were reprieved.

Regards

Brian

[takersbabe]

i have studied pendle witches a lot growing up its a sad fascinating story