For quite a few people, discovering their heritage and history comes later in life. School, career, and raising children will often take precedence over the time and resources necessary to pour over genealogy charts, family bibles or even old photographs. Our extended families becomes scattered geographically and generations tend to live apart. Older relatives, repositories of a wealth of details of life gone by, pass away, and when the storyteller is gone, often, too, is their story.
I was incredibly fortunate then that my grandparents gave to me at an early age family stories about Martha Carrier, my grandmother back nine generations and one of the nineteen men and women hanged as a witch in Salem in 1692. Some of those stories were taken from documented history of the trials, but some of them were a recounting of rustic life in 17th century New England , passed down through generations of Carriers for over three hundred years. In both my novels The Heretic’s Daughter, and the newly published The Traitor’s Wife, I incorporate many of those tales in tribute to my colonial ancestors.
The first time I remember hearing about Martha was when I was a child, visiting my grandparents’ house in Pennsylvania for the summer. I sat at the kitchen table listening to my mother and grandmother talking about family members, some of them long dead. I hadn’t been paying them much attention until I heard my grandmother say something about a relative who had been hanged as a witch. Intrigued, I asked her if Martha Carrier was truly a witch, and she said, “Sweetheart, there are no such things as witches, merely ferocious women.”
From that moment on, at every family gathering, I asked my grandparents and great aunts and uncles for stories about Martha Carrier, and of her husband, Thomas, who has his own fascinating history. From them I learned that Martha was indeed a ferocious woman; courageous, outspoken and steadfast in denying being a witch. She is perhaps the only person recorded during the witch trials who called her judges to task for giving credence to the accusing girls’ testimony by saying, “It is a shame that you should listen to these folks who are out of their wits.”
Thomas Carrier, Martha’s husband, was a man who, according to my grandparents, lived to 109 years of age, stood seven feet tall and was one of the executioners of King Charles I of England . My book research substantiated the first two claims. As to the rumor that Thomas was involved in a king’s death, the story may never be proved, but it has, to date, not been disproved either. Following the publishing of The Heretic’s Daughter, I was contacted by many fellow Carrier descendents, most of whom I had never met before, who told me that they also had grown up hearing the same legends about this remarkable man.
Embracing my family history from such an early age helped define who I am. It instilled in me pride in the bravery and steadfastness of the family that came before me, who suffered and overcame so much injury from social intolerance and superstitious dread. Looking at the “ferocious women” in my family helped to nurture my own sense of the value of passionate hard work and perseverance. It also gave me a profound love for history, especially early American history, and for the settlers who risked so much for the ideals of individual freedoms. Those family stories were a gift; a gift which I hope to pass on to the generations that come after me.
Now for the giveaway!
I will be giving away one book for every 10 entries with a maximum of three books to give away. The first name drawn will also receive a copy of The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent.
Winners will be subject to the one copy per household, which means if you win the same title on another blog you will receive only one copy of the title.
To enter this contest you must be at least 18 and live in the U.S. or Canada. No PO Boxes please.
For one entry leave me a comment including your email address below.
For another entry share something interesting about your personal family history.
For two additional entries, blog about this contest or add the link to your sidebar.
Please include your email so I will have a way to contact you if you win. Use a spam-thwarting format such as myemail.address AT gmail DOT com or myemail.address [at] gmail [dot] com.
You will have until October 16th to enter and I will draw for winners on or after October 17th.
Good luck everyone!
**This giveaway is closed**
**This giveaway is closed**
211 comments:
1 – 200 of 211 Newer› Newest»Thanks for this great giveaway. It sounds intriguing and would be fascinating. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
This novel would be wonderful and extremely interesting. Many thanks. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com
This sounds like a great book! I would love to read! Thank you!
Margaret
singitm(at)hotmail(dot)com
An interesting thing about my family is my grandmother was in the U.S. working in her early twenties (we are originally from Portugal and now live in Canada)she made $22 a week which was big money for a woman at that time and she was also there during the first world war and was asked to be a nurse. She declined but I always wondered about her life at that time.
Margaret
singitm@hotmail.com
I would love to read this! Thanks for the giveaway!
misusedinnocence@aol.com
Family history says that I'm related to Lady Godiva and Ethelred the Unready. Which is kinda awesome. lol
misusedinnocence@aol.com
From Eastern Europe to Canada and then to the U.S. the family wanted to move for better opportunities, good climate and success. Most were hardworking entrepreneurs who were self taught and devoted to their families. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
An interesting snippet about our family is that we all love opera and listen to it frequently. A few members of one side of the family used to sing opera.elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com
I would love to read the Traitor's Wife. I have already read The Heretic's Daughter.
I am sure I would love this book also.
cenya2 at hotmail dot com
I would love to win. Thanks for the chance.
amandarwest at gmaildotcom
One of my ancestors was a cook on the Mayflower and my grandpa still has a couple of glass plates he inherited from him.
My book club read The Heretic's Wife earlier this year and really enjoyed speaking with Kathleen. I'm eager to read this one!
litandlifeATgmailDOTcom
Sounds like a great read. Thanks for the giveaway.
dlodden at frontiernet dot net
Family history: One of my ancestors was a master mason in France.
dlodden at frontiernet dot net
Sounds like a good one--thanks for the giveaway!
dogdmc48(at)hotmail(dot)com
Great giveaway. I love family histories.
stacybooks at yahoo
Please enter me in the draw, and thanks for the giveaway!
darlenesbooknook at gmail dot com
+1 something interesting about my family history:
I'm a first-generation Canadian! My parents immigrated from Germany.
darlenesbooknook at gmail dot com.
This sounds really good! I'd love to read it!
mittens0831 at aol dot com
I haven't read either of these books yet. So... enter me in the contest. Thanks!
undermyappletree at gmail dot com
I added a link to the contest to the sidebar of my blog.
http://undermyappletree.net
I think this is such an interesting time period and the book (both of them) look so good. Thanks for the chance to win!
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com
This sounds really interesting. I love historical novels.
florida982002[at]yahoo.com
We still have part of a Civil War uniform belonging to a distant grandpa who was with a Wisconsin regiment during the Civil War.
JHolden955(at)gmail(dot)com
One thing I find fascinating about my family history is that I am a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden. I didn't even know it until my aunt had some geneological research done.
florida982002[at]yahoo.com
Love Kathleen Kent and would love to read this one. Please enter me.
tbranco24 AT gmail DOT com
I am currently doing my own family genealogy and trying to put a book together for my teenager that some day she will love as a gift. What a wonderful give a way. I love it, Jackie paulson at jackiepaulson8@gmil.com and I found you at Comment by Jo-Jo 6 hours ago
You still have time to enter my giveaway for The Traitor's Wife by Kathleen Kent! You can enter here until 10/16
IBoth books are on my TBR list so thank you for the giveaway.
jgoffice(at) cox (dot)net
My mother wanted to join the Daughters of the American Revolution so she began researching our family history. She was very surprised to find out that part of our family had sided with the Loyalists. Mom didn't join.
jgoffice(at)cox(dot)net
This book sounds great and I would love to win it. Thanks.
your1chef at aol dot com
This sounds like an awesome read. Thanks for the incredible giveaway :)
Renee
fattybumpkins at yahoo dot com
Thanks for the great giveaway! I love this time period and intrigued by the Salem Witch Trials. I would love to win!
BornajhawkATaolDOTcom
Well, I'm a Mayflower descendant and related to President Zachary Taylor.
BornajhawkATaolDOTcom
please sign me up for this. I so enjoyed her first book and the fact that it is about her family made it all that much more interesting.
family history my father took a book over to Canada when he migrated.
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