Witch Witnesses

I have 2048 9x great-grandfathers. Technically, everyone does. We have two birth parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents…it just keeps doubling. I’d never be able to trace them all, particularly in Ireland where an overwhelming majority of my ancestry comes from. However, for the thin slice of my father’s Colonial predecessors, history has been very well

Short Story

A sign by the side of the road at the water’s edge in Essex, Massachusetts, says, “In 1668 the town granted the adjacent acre of land to inhabitants of Ipswich for a yard to build vessels and to employ workmen for that end. The shipbuilding industry has continued uninterruptedly in Essex since that date.” In

Boat Builders

In 1813, the Story family established their shipyard in Essex, Massachusetts, where the Essex Shipbuilding Museum is now. That’s where I found this charming old “trunnel” shed—a term that means the builders used wooden pegs to fasten the pieces of wood together, like those used in boat building. A nearby marker states that 4000 boats