Connecting Branches in the Family Tree

 

Have you traced your ancestry? Discovering our lineage is popular in the U.S. Everyone wants to know where we came from and what our forbears were like. The process is easy. Register with one of the websites or send in a sample of DNA, and in a few weeks, you learn your history.

When I was young, these sites didn’t exist. (Neither did the internet, LOL.) If someone wanted to find out about their predecessors, a genealogy chart was constructed using county records, bibles, and newspaper archives. One of my great uncles developed an interest in researching our clan before I was born. He followed many generations back, compiled all his work into a thick book, made numerous copies, and sent them to all the branches of the family. My mother had one, so I grew up hearing stories about the famous (and infamous) people from our bloodline. When I was old enough, I was allowed to access the book. It’s dry, with fading mimeographed pages and small, arcane symbols, but if read with imagination, the past comes alive.

One of my ancestors was Susannah Martin, who was hanged in Salem in 1692. Another was Cotton Mather, the magistrate who presided over the Salem Witch Trials. When I realized that I am descended from both a woman executed for witchcraft and the judge who sentenced her, my fantasy took flight.

What if this happened to a book protagonist who was a descendant of both accused and accuser? What would she be like? What would make her unique, and what would cause her trouble? What would be the repercussions of the merging of the lines?

The idea became Witch Trial Legacy which releases October 11. The heroine, Sybilla Sanborn, is descended from both the condemned woman and the man who denounced her.

Sybilla has the gift of healing touch from half her heritage. From the other, she receives a curse. She sees visions of future tragedies, but when she tries to warn people, no one will believe her.

Then, she discovers Cassadaga, Florida, home to mediums, psychics, and spiritualists. A medium reveals the source of Sybilla’s problem was transmitted through the generations.

Sybilla must find a way to convince people to heed her warnings.

But when she learns what she will have to do, the cost may be too great.

Everyone has interesting roots. I would love to hear about your antecedents. Respond to this post with a few words about some cool characters from your family tree. Or some terrible ones you wish you weren’t related to.

I’ll pick one person who comments and gift you with a $10.00 Amazon card. C’mon. Brag a little! You know you want to! (Contest closes at midnight July 25, 2021.)

Thank you for joining us on the Pen Dames blog! We appreciate you!

                                                                                                                               

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