Martha Carrier and her Family

This site is a bittersweet find.  Sweet to have it exist but I am bitter than I found it months after the reunion.  I would have loved to attend. Below is my line to Martha.

I only found out about the connection a few years ago, when I started doing genealogy for my newborn daughter.  My mother (Suzanne) mentioned something she heard from her father or grandmother about a connection to the Salem Witch Trials.  An article from my aunt and an afternoon on Ancestry and I had the connection.  I can’t wait until my daughters (there are two strong-willed girls following me around now) are old enough to understand.  Kathleen’s book and another I just found in a post are on their way.

I look forward to connecting with some of you and (hopefully) attending the next reunion.

Brad

My maiden name is Sheila Carrier.  I live in Rochester, New York, and have just finished reading Kathleen Kent’s novels about Martha and Thomas Carrier.  They have renewed my desire to learn about my heritage.  My niece has gone as far back as the Civil War and discovered my great-great grandfather Carrier was a Union army officer.  After the war he went to Panama and worked on the canal where he died of yellow fever.  I know he was from Lockport, New York, and there are several Carriers buried in a cemetery there.  We visited that cemetery but do not know if any Carriers still live in Lockport.

My grandfather was John Dudley Carrier.  He was born in the late 1800′s.  His son, my father, was John Littlefield Carrier. He was born around 1912 I have two brothers;  John Charles Carrier (deceased) and Robert William Carrier.  We all are from the Rochester, New York, area.
Do you know if any of Martha and Thomas’s kin migrated to upstate New York?  I noticed that there was a reference to the ‘Virginia’ Carriers.  Can you tell me anything about them?

I’m not very skilled at researching genealogy but my niece is.  She is too busy to devote much time to this.  Any info you can pass on would be very much appreciated!

Thank you,
Sheila McAuliff

sheilamca@msn.com

Salem, the witch city, is rebranding itself, in hopes of luring more than the witch tourist.

With a new logo — half hat, half sail — Salem wants to remind people of its maritime history, and attractions that can bring people to town for more than the annual October witchfest, Haunted Happenings.

Salem’s tourism has been hard-hit by the recession and shrinking marketing budgets. Writer Rodrique Ngowi’s AP report can be read here.

My Dad (John Carrier) and I attended the Carrier Family Reunion. We had such an amazing time! As a way to commemorate the trip, I got a new tattoo!

Dear Carrier cousins and family:

Because of a steady number of bogus registrations from “ru” and “po” servers, we will now require any new user to send an email verifying your Carrier connection or interest, along with real name. You can choose any user name, and password, but I will manually add you to the list. You will then be able to post blog items, photos, links etc, and comment on any post. Those already signed up retain their “author” status.

Your email, name and any personal profile information you add will be kept private.

New registrations: send an email to info (at) marthacarrier.org.

Thank you,

Jim Carrier, administrator

I’ve put some reunion pictures at

Reunion Photo’s

Neal Carrier

A new, nonfiction book from a Salem descendant.

According to Amazon, Diane Foulds breaks participants into groups such as: The Accusers, the Victims, the Clergy…the Elite.

Click here for more from Amazon.

Little Brown, the publisher of Kathleen Kent’s two novels on the Carrier family, has posted a two-minute video of our reunion in Salem. You can find it by clicking here.

Also, Wolves of Andover is available in an audio book, read Ellen Archer.

Thankyou Kathleen for the wonderful events that took place during the reunion and for your books. It was great to meet so many new cousins. Does anyone have a final count? I heard a couple of times that it was over 300. I stayed five days beyond the reunion and discovered (for myself anyway) some interesting things. At the Witchcraft Dungeon Museum there is a board set in the wall from the original building where the condemned were kept. Women who touch it have good luck, men who touch it don’t. We were told that river rats tunneled in and that when the river rose, water was ankle deep in the room. In the lobby of the Phillips Library there are two paintings, one is labeled “Examination of a Witch”, painted in 1853 by Tomkins Matteson. Not sure if both are by the same individual, the theme is the same. In the Visitors Center there are two displays, one showing a map and cards listing those who were executed and where they were from. The other display talked of the “Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice”, it came about because the the witchcraft trials. There is information about it on-line. I hope others got to see these things too, it added so much to my store of information.
This entire trip has been most extraordinary, i will never forget it.