Bloodlines of Salem was a

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

-based family-history group in the United States. Its purpose was described as providing a "place where visitors share ideas and information about the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

of 1692, its participants and their families. Many visitors have researched and proved their descents from one or more of the participants. The trials unfolded more than three centuries ago and continue to figure prominently in the studies of

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

and

religion Religion is a range of social system, social-cultural systems, including designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics in religion, ethics, or ...

. As amateur and professional researchers, or 'Salemologists,' however, their study of the trials isn't limited to their lineages."

Membership

A person was eligible to register a membership with the group if he or she proposed in writing 1) a desire to register, 2) an agreement with the group promise to "remember the Salem Witch Trials and its participants by associating their families and preserving their lineages", "share commercial, genealogical and historical information about the trials and its participants" and "educate others about hegroup and promise" and 3) a name, city of residence and contact information. The person was not charged a registration fee, could use the postnominal abbreviation "MBoS" and could request at any time to cancel or change the registration. A person was eligible to register a descendant membership with the group if he or she was otherwise eligible to register a membership and proved beyond doubt his or her descent from or relationship to one or more participants of the trials with lineages showing detailed descendancy. The person was not charged a registration fee, could use the postnominal abbreviation "DBoS" and could request at any time to cancel or change the registration, and must have included proof of parentage for each

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

, beginning with his or her own, so that the person named first in a generation was a child or relative of the couple named in the following generation.

History

The group was founded in 2007 in

, home of the worldwide Family History Library, to encourage and provide resources to persons who are or suspect they are descendants and relatives of trials participants, or enjoy an interest in the trials. The head of BLoS, as of October 2013, was Steven Hale.

Activities

Group researchers investigated and published evidence of notable descendants and relatives of trials participants. Its 2007 investigation discovered that "Harry Potter" film actor Tom Felton is a relative of several participants including Lt. Nathaniel Felton and John Proctor, who was hanged during the trials. Their website had a section of "notable descendants of the accused and the accusers" which included

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

, Princess Diana, and

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

Legacy

The organization went out of existence in 2018.

References

External links