Just found out that an ancestor testified in the Salem Witchcraft Trials

[csziggy]

26. When I first began digitizing our family trees in the mid 1980s

I tried going to the State library here (Tallahassee) and researching. What with traffic, parking and logistics inside the library, each trip took pretty much an entire day and I really didn't get a lot of information. So many of those old books were not well indexed, and of course there was no comprehensive indexing of the entire collection.

Occasionally since then, I have tried looking up ancestors online, the last time in the late 1990s. In the last decade, the change in access to information has made a tremendous leap. It's not just the pay sites like Ancestry, though they make it a little easier, but the USGenWeb type sites,local history association sites, and individuals putting their information online. It's made a huge difference in the ease of finding information. Even if there is no direct access to a reference, chances are someone who did have access has posted the information online.

As for the witch hunting hysteria, I think back to the craze about recovered memories with allegations of molestation and even child sacrifice based only on those dubious claims. People were arrested, tried and spent years in prison based on hypnotically recovered memories that have since been proven to be baseless. There was no hard evidence, no other witnesses, but people's lives were ruined. I think that is a form of witch hysteria, especially the allegations of child sacrifice.

Also remember that for years, "experts" were traveling around the country warning law enforcement agencies about the "Satanic cults" that were perverting children and killing people. It took years but eventually the FBI came out and acknowledged that there was no evidence of these "Satanic cults" and the claims of sacrifice.

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/remembering_dangerously/
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/recovered_memories_cross_the_oceans/
http://www.fmsfonline.org/

So the possibility of a new extreme is not that remote. Maybe this time in this country people accused of witchcraft will not be put to death, but people's lives have already been ruined by allegations with no objective evidence.