Witch Ancestors: Finding Witches in Your Family Tree!

Witch Ancestors: How to Find Witches in Your Family Tree

Every one has an interesting ancestors in their lineage. We find preachers, movie stars, blacksmiths, villains, even royalty in our family trees. Some of us have accused witch ancestors, too! Think about how big a family tree is the further back you go – the likelihood of witch ancestors increases. Hundreds of thousands of people were accused of witchcraft between the eighth and eighteenth century throughout the world. The web gives access to ancestral information including lists of accused witches.

There are different methods to research ancestry for witch ancestors, discussed below. Get out your black pointy hats and broomsticks. Let’s take a ride into the past in search of our magical witch ancestors.

First, What IS a Witch Ancestor Anyway?

Look, you and I and Karen could sit around and debate over what constitutes a witch and what doesn’t. We could also sit and debate how to know whether our ancestors were witches or just “accused” of witchcraft. Sure, many of them might not have been witches per se but a portion of them had their own unique magick. Just like we do today. Maybe they didn’t call themselves witches, because truly that was a negative word in centuries past. Maybe they didn’t call themselves anything at all but made herbal remedies for their families and friends. Or talked to the fairies in their garden. Or were able to see the dead.

Maybe people came to them and asked them to read the cards or scry in a bottle to tell them their future. Or find lost items. Maybe your ancestor practiced folk magic or faith healing and kept it all to him or herself. In these cases, we might not even have access to their names or know via documentation that they were indeed magical ancestors. But the whole point to this article is to EXPLORE your family tree. Your witchy history that runs deep in your veins and in your very DNA. Okay? Let’s go.

Finding Your Witch Ancestors: Family Trees

Ancestry.com is a great place to research and document your ancestral line. While it does cost money and time, it is worth it. Another great site is Geni.com. First, prepare yourself to spend time on this project. It won’t be a quick google search. You will have to spend time researching and documenting your family tree to find a link to a witch ancestor. Most of us don’t have the same last name as our witch ancestors, so we will create a list of last names in our tree. Also keep in mind, there are variations of names over time and place. For example, your last name might be Spade now but two hundred years ago your ancestors’ last name was actually Spaht. When they moved, they changed it. This is common. 

Step #1: Build Your Family Tree

Build your family tree online (if you haven’t already). If you can’t afford an online ancestry database like ancestry.com, build a family tree manually. This will take more time and effort, but it can be done by talking to people in your family and gathering important documents from family members and libraries. Go back as far as you can until you hit a wall, until you can’t find any further ancestors. Sometimes you might get lucky and find a story about one of your ancestors that might tip you off to the fact that he or she was a witch. If not, continue on to step #2.

Step #2: Build A Simple List

Make a separate list of your family’s names. This can be in a word document or on scrap paper. Keep the family names in alphabetical order for easy access while researching. Leave some space next to each person’s name and record their country of origin (and city/town if you have it). Make note of the years of birth and death, if available.

At this point, you can move on to step #3 detailed in the next section.

Witch ancestors can be found in everyone's family trees!
Create a family tree to find your witch ancestors.

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Searching the Web: Witch Databases

Once you have the foundation of your family tree and a solid list of familial names, research your witch ancestors by exploring online witch name databases. This seems like a daunting task, but it’s not so bad once you get started. Don’t forget to look for variations of your familial surnames!

Step #3: Research, Research, Research!

Use the name list with locations and dates and compare to databases online of accused witches. First, look at the locations of each of your ancestors (i.e. if you have ancestors that came to the United States in the seventeenth century, search for a list of names in the Salem Witch Trials or New York Witches). Don’t forget there were witches publicly accused in almost every U.S. colony, so research each state’s list of witch names too.

Check for your ancestors’ names against the Salem Witch Ancestry:

There are dozens of websites that provide information on the people in the Salem Witch Trials. Most of us won’t find any witch ancestors involved in the Salem Witch Trials, so we’ll have to look back into our European ancestry (or elsewhere).

Do your witch ancestors hail from Salem?
The Salem Witch Trials involved quite a few people – check to see if your witch ancestors were Salem Witches!

Check the witch databases below for names of the accused across the world:

  • Witchcraft, The Witch Trials: information on the European Witch Trials. Click on each location to find your witch and ancestors from Europe. Note: if you don’t have the location or dates of your ancestors, this website will prove rather difficult for you to use.
  • Wikipedia’s List of People Executed for Witchcraft:  a huge list of people executed for witchcraft in Europe and elsewhere. Just remember these are only people who were killed – it doesn’t include the accused who were set free.
  • Scotland, Names of Witches, 1658: a huge document detailing names of the Scottish witches is available to search on ancestry.com. Access to the digital copy is available online to manually research (if you don’t have an ancestry account).
  • The Arcane Archive: one of my favorite resources for looking up witch names in Europe and elsewhere. Hundreds of names, dates and locations in alphabetical order.
  • Witch Hunt on Sacred Texts: this list has hundreds of names of accused witches from around the world. Not just Mainland and Insular Europe and the U.S. but also Ethiopia, Mexico, the Middle East, Malaysia and more.

It’s going to take time. It’s likely you won’t see results the first day. Keep going and take notes. If you do find a witch ancestor or witch hunter ancestor, do detailed research on that particular person. Look up the name online or at your local library.

Disclaimer: When a Name Matches But You Can’t Prove it

In some cases, you may find a witch or accused witch with your familial surname and even location of your ancestors. If you found this person via witch databases but you can’t link him/her to your actual family tree, it doesn’t mean you aren’t still related! In many cases, witches’ names were erased from family trees and some public records in an effort to further shame them or cut them off from their lineage. 

For example, I’ve found two witches that I believe are ancestors of mine. Their last names match my ancestors including the time period and exact location in which my ancestors lived. But I can’t find either in my family tree nor can I find them in anyone’s family trees online. This leads me to believe their names were expunged from their family trees. It’s a theory of mine. I can’t prove it but it would make sense if their families were ashamed of them or wanted to protect themselves from being accused down the line.

  Don’t worry so much if you can “prove” the ancestor is yours. Ask and believe.

Local Witch History and Family Stories

If the online research fails, there are other ways to research without a computer. If your family has been in the same area for centuries, look into your local history to see if your family played a part. If you know where your ancestors came from, more specifically the town or region, this is important to note too.

Step #4: Research Location History

Often, local historical documents are available at the library or even online. Through this research, you might find a story about one of your family members being accused or suspected of witchcraft. It’s also super helpful to familiarize yourself with your ancestors’ location, whether local to you or elsewhere. If you know where they lived, start looking into the ancient history of this place. What were the people like? What was their religion? Then research the Medieval history…did they have any Witch Trials in this area? Are there names you can view and compare to your list of names?

Step #5: Talk To Your Family

Find information about witch ancestors by simply talking to family members. Sometimes another family member has already done research and built a family tree. If you are really lucky, there might be a story about a witch ancestor or witch hunter passed down through your family tree. Talk to your oldest surviving family member for closer insight. Keep in mind other terms used like herbs, herbalist, cunning woman or man, midwife, wizard, alchemist, berserker, sorceress, sorcerer, bruja, occultist, wise man, sin eater, water witch, pow wow, faith healer, fairy doctor, fairy friend, witch doctor, healer, outcast, shaman, hag, crone, granny, sage, etc.

Still No Luck? Don’t Forget Logic

So you’ve built an entire family tree, spent hours on research, and still haven’t found a link to witch ancestors in your family tree? Don’t fret. This was supposed to be fun! But if you’re that serious about it, think about it like this. By process of deduction, someone in your family tree was a witch or a witch hunter. Why? Because you have literally thousands of people in your lineage. Someone was either accused or executed as a witch! We all have witch ancestors, it’s just about finding them.

In the meantime, now you have information on your ancestors to educate other people in your family or simply enjoy on your own. Put together a ancestry photo album or scrapbook. Write a book or blog with the stories you’ve gathered on your family tree. In addition, consider asking your ancestors to send you a dream or message with an answer to this question. I promise you, you will receive one. And maybe your witch ancestor is just waiting for you to reach out. Light a candle and talk to them.

More on Ancestors:

Witch Ancestors: Finding Witches in Your Family Tree

35 thoughts on “Witch Ancestors: How to Find Witches in Your Family Tree

  1. My paternal Great-Gran was a midwife, don’t know about my Gran and my Dad definitely wasn’t involved in magic, but me, most definitely. I am a solitary

  2. I need help. Can u possibly point me in a direction? You see, I am adopted, I’ve always had a spiritual connection all my life, signs from loved ones and my cats after bout 2-3wks of their passing and also my spirit telling me things b4 they happen. My birth ma is polish and my birth dad is Scottish and Irish. I am not a tech savvy person so I am not sure how to trace my bloodline. Can u give me anything that could help me? I am looking for any info especially for finding spiritual connections from others in my bloodline.

    1. if you know the surnames of your biological mother and father or have anything of theirs that may have a clue to locations or other people, they might have known you could trace those back to people who knew your parents who could help you trace them. Ireland is a small place so I think it would be easiest to start there. if you want to try and find out online you could try using myheritage.com as they have marriage records, birth certificates, records from census’ and the names or recruits from wars. you could also check out some of the other articles on this website like the fairy queen and Celtic god and goddess one I don’t know if they are entirely accurate, but they are fun. any way history is really entertaining to learn about good luck i hope you find what your looking for 🙂

  3. My maiden last name is Bailey and has been spelled in so many ways over the centuries. My last name was my fathers but my mothers mother was a Conrad but I have come up empty asking family member and most died when I was born in the 80’s. I’ve tried ancestry registry still nothing.

    1. One way to search is to get as much details about your mother (first name, middle and last name, birthdate etc) . Try the local registry where you can find all birth records and from there you will know grandparents names etc. You can find a lot of information through birth certificates, death records, obituaries and marriage records.

  4. I love the post. My last name is Gebo . I no it is a rune stone. so it will be interesting to see if we have any witches in our ancestor’s my aunt said there was one before she passed away. Love to document it with all of our history.

  5. I have 23 known witch ancestors. Some are Scottish. Some are English, Irish, and Welsh. Several were Scandinavian. Many were accused but escaped. A few were arrested and imprisoned, and a couple were hanged (one died in prison). I also have three ancestors were were involved with stopping the witch trials. In addition, I have several who were called “shamans” from Eastern Europe and North America.

  6. Family Tree is a good genealogy app also! That’s the one that I use and have been able to trace my lineage back to 530 ad. It can be very time consuming to search and line everything up but for me it has been so worth it. Besides Royalty in my lineage, I found a ton of ancestors that settled in Salem Massachusetts and Plymouth, one of them being John Proctor, Jr. my 13th Great Uncle.

  7. I have tried looking for some of my ancestors on ancestors.com but couldn’t find anything I don’t know if they can go as far as South America I come from Argentina. All I know from my father that him mom was an Indian princess from a tribe but he wouldn’t tell me from what tribe. The ones who would have mote info about thier mom and dad have passed away. So I have ask a family member from Argentina on my mom side of the family to see if they can get me some information. At this point I’m very stuck in finding any type of info. I would like my two children to know where there roots since we live in the US California. I’m also a descendent from Europe France and Italy and maybe Spain. And if anyone knows how I can get info from South America ancestors please let me know thank you

    1. Do your ancestry.com DNA sample…all you do is spit in a cup and send it off. It costs about 60 or 75$ and then you enter your code into ancestry.com after you make a login and bam! You will find more info than you ever wanted to know! It will show you matches of DNA from ALL OVER THE WORLD! South America included! It shows every single person that has sent off thier DNA if their DNA matches yours, and it shows thier family trees as well.from there you can even send a message to your DNA matches! So you will find out everything and everyone related to you….be careful though lol. I found out that my dads dad wasn’t really his dad, so half of my family wasnt even my family this whole time, but that’s life I guess! Proceed with caution! But have fun! It is amazing to look at all the people’s photos that you are related to. It also shows exactly how many parts of DNA you match with each person.

  8. Hello,
    As I was looking in to my family tree on ancessery.com I came across my 8th GGM Susanah Roots “The Witch”. I was not looking for witches in my family but I came across her. I was really surprised.

  9. I found an Ann foster who was married and widowed by Andrew foster. Ann foster was incastated and died in prison. Both of them came from Scottland to America at the time. Interesting enough my mom’s maiden last name is foster. And many names passed down from Ann and Andrews family line are family names of mine. Very interesting.

    1. I am descended from Ann Foster as well!…through her daughter Hanna Stone. It’s a long way from 1617 Salem Mass to North Florida 1974, but the link is undeniable. Our family discovered the link through tracing back through our ancestor, Henry Dessex Stone (one of our more famous ancestors).

  10. My brother is very much into genealogy, and in his research he found that our 7x (I think it’s 7) great grandmother was Mary Esty, who is quite well-known among those who were executed during the Salem Witch Trials.

  11. Very informative post! I haven’t looked into options like ancestry.com , but I can definitely say that most people -even those that are certain their family could never associate with witches, let alone have one in them- will find witches somewhere in their ancestral line. I’ve seen it in my ancestral line where I wouldn’t expect it and I’ve seen it with many other people who decided to investigate their lineage.

    1. Hi Scarlet! I agree! You’ll find one eventually if you look hard enough. And maybe in the most unlikely spot!

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