[birds chirping] Woman 1: So this is the garden that I grew up with.

These are bunching onions, or what we call bunching onions.

And then I think down here inside of them, we have some, we have some strawberries, or used to have some strawberries.

Oh, here’s some!

♪♪ One of my favorite trees is the apple tree, that not only is it a beautiful tree, but that it does bear fruit.

And I love the idea that you can not only have a beautiful tree, but actually have something to show for it.

I think that that is one thing that has always kind of stood out to me is what is the fruit in our lives?

What do we have to offer to the world?

♪♪ I think a lot of our continuance and that ability to feel like our contribution has come is through children.

You know, I’m, I’m at an age where it’s likely I may not have children.

And as heartbreaking as that is to me, that’s life.

And if I’m not able to contribute that way, I want there to be a contribution from my life.

I want it to have mattered in a good way, that I was here.

♪♪ - Hello, I’m Lise Simms.

And each week on our program, we bring you the story of someone who, for one reason or another, wants to connect with an ancestor or an entire generation of their family tree, and we help them do just that.

We’re an ongoing project dedicated to connecting families across generations, and today, that person is Rachel Broadbent.

Welcome.

- Hi, Lise.

- Hi.

You were raised in an orchard.

That orchard-- - Yeah.

- --as a matter of fact.

Tell me about your degrees.

A degree in... Rachel: Well, I think it started because I grew up in the orchards.

I grew up loving trees, being surrounded by nature.

And so, I studied horticulture.

Ornament-- ornamental and urban horti-- horti-- horticulture at BYU.

Lise: I’m glad you can’t say it ‘cause I have trouble saying it too.

- As I studied that initially and got really into trees, became a certified arborist-- loved that.

Lise: Wow.

- And then, as I experienced more in that world, I wanted to be a little more proactive and thought instead of kind of being sad that things are not done right, what can I do proactively?

What can I go forward?

And so, I went back to school to study urban planning with a focus in urban forestry and urban green spaces so that hopefully, from the beginning, they can be planned for so that there can be a better system.

Lise: Just sort of what your whole journey is about even in your own personal life.

Can you define for me, um, “systems thinking?” What is systems thinking?

- Systems thinking I think can apply to almost any sort of, well, “system.” It’s, it’s kind of-- it’s the realizing that nothing is independent, that there’s a relationship between everything.

So that whatever-- is it-- if it’s environmental, if it’s a family system, if it’s, you know, if it’s an emotional system, that every-- that there’s nothing really-- like, no man is an island.

Nothing stands alone.

There is always going to be a-- any action has that potential to make a positive or negative impact within the system it lives in.

- Okay, I love this, and this comes up very much in your story.

Um, but before we get to your story, why did you choose to follow your family history journey now?

- Um, I think we saw a little bit there.

I’m at an age right now, I’m-- where I have the opportunity to make some choices in my life.

Where to go career-wise, whether I want to go back and pursue an additional degree.

I’m kind of at a self-imposed crossroads.

I can, I can easily keep going with life the way it is, um, you know, just muddle through.

And, and that’s not-- but that’s not what I wanna do.

I want to-- like I mentioned before.

Like, proactive.

I love the idea of being able to determine and to go forward rather than be reactive or passive.

Lise: Where did that come from in you?

Have you always been that way?

I think that’s a unique character trait.

- I-- you know what, I don’t know.

I think I actually may have gotten it from my mother.

We’ve been talking a little bit recently within our family about this can-do attitude.

And my mother was a single mother who raised eight children.

And we just saw her do everything that needed to be done, and so, I think I may have just, Well, you just do it.

Lise: [chuckles] Speaking of your mom, you really included her on the journey because this is her side of the family that you’re delving into.

And I really love that you both work together.

So deliberately and with such consciousness, you made your choices together consciously as to what leads to follow, and that’s really where your story begins, so let’s watch.

Rachel: All right.

♪♪ So, Mom, I hope that we can find ancestors who had to come to terms with the systems that they found themselves in, and that this will help me figure out my purpose.

So who do you think I should start with?

Rachel’s mom: Well I, I remember when we were able to get some things from my mother, and you said that you just, for some reason, felt kind of a special connection to Grandpa George.

- I did.

And that-- you know what, to be honest, I don’t really know why.

I felt maybe it’s because he was an artist but yet also loved to garden.

- And our yard, it’s inspired by his yard.

He just had the most wonderful garden.

- Do you have, do you have any information about him in there?

Rachel’s mom: Let’s see.

I’ve got a picture of him and grandma-- my mother’s mother.

So that’s my mother’s mother and father when they were young.

Rachel: And so-- Okay, so this is, this is George, this is-- Rachel’s mom: George Barber, right.

Rachel: So that’s Grandma Russell, Ida May.

- Ida M-- and she was a Rawson.

And so, let’s see.

I think I’ve got a picture of their family in Stirling.

In Stirling, Canada, and I think it’s up there kind of around Cardston and Lethbridge and-- And this, ah, this has his voice on it.

I took-- I made this CD-- I mean, I made a tape, an old fashioned kind, about 34 years ago.

Rachel: Oh!

Rachel’s mom: So, do you wanna-- Rachel: Give me a second, I’ve got my computer here.

[rustling] [CD whirring] Um, that’s awesome.

I don’t-- well, I, I don’t recall ever hearing his voice because I was so young when he passed away.

Rachel’s mom: He-- I just remember clear as day his voice just full of longing saying it was wonderful for them that stayed, and that’s where he always longed to be, and-- Rachel: And so, he went there as a boy, so these are who really went in their adulthood, is Adam Russell, and Hannah Maria Child.

Rachel’s mom: I think it’s Maria [Muh-rye-uh], but I’m not sure.

Will you ask him when you go there?

- I will ask him.

But okay, I’m excited to go!

I’m gonna go, and I wanna find out not only about him, but I think that that’s really interesting about the whole canal and-- - Mm-hm, and the agriculture there.

You’re interested in agriculture.

That would’ve been the beginning of their agriculture.

♪♪ Lise: Stirling, Alberta, where Rachel’s great grandfather, George Russell, moved as a child, is still the small bucolic town in Western Canada that he would’ve known.

In fact, it was his parents, Adam Russell and Hannah Child, along with the other early homesteaders who took what was a dry and unforgiving Canadian prairie and transformed it into the verdant community it is today.

♪♪ Rachel’s interest in systems thinking and how the community altered the landscape has led her to investigate how that alteration came about.

She is meeting with local expert, Bill Hillan, at the Galt Historic Railway Station, which has been relocated to Stirling from the Canadian border.

- This station was, in fact, the actual crossing to the border, and this was the port of entry by rail.

Rachel: So, my ancestors, when they first came to Canada, this would be the first place they stopped?

Bill: That’s correct.

Lise: In 1890, Sir Alexander Galt, one of the founding fathers of Canada, built a railroad through Southern Alberta, and along that rail line lay a million acres of arid grassland.

Galt wanted to sell the land to anxious homesteaders filling up the west.

But before the people would flow to that land, he needed to get the water to it, and he went to the Mormon pioneers in Utah to make that happen.

Bill: In the beginning of this, Charles Magrath and Elliott Galt, they were trying to sell land to settlers, which was unirrigated, and they could get the best was a dollar an acre.

Uh, irrigated land sold for two dollars an acre.

So it was 100% increase in the value of the property.

Rachel: So, my great- grandfather came here when he was 7 years old with his family.

There were plenty of people who probably wanted the land.

Why did they f-- you know, why did they seek after?

Why did they choose, um, the Mormons to come up and settle the area?

- Well, I think first was the fact that they had the expertise in, in, in, in the irrigation system.

The, uh, teams and horses and the engineers who were brought up, uh, were well-versed in what they had to do because they’d already been experienced with the canals in Salt Lake, uh, and that was in 1900 that they had turned basically a grassland into farmland.

Rachel: They were capable farmers and settlers.

Bill: Very much so.

♪♪ Rachel: I can imagine with my, with my great-grandfather here with all of his brothers, he was 7 years old.

He probably was running up and down that platform.

I can see how the farmers from Utah felt very comfortable coming here.

I would love to learn, like, how-- so even though they had engineers tell them technically how to build the, the canal, they had the experience, the know-how, from having done it before.

And so, I’d like to learn more about that history.

Lise: The canal her ancestors built changed the ecosystem of Stirling, and Rachel is heading to meet local expert, Bert Still, because she wants to know exactly what it took to build it.

Rachel: Was this potable water?

Or was this strictly agricultural grade?

- No, no, it’s, it’s, uh-- we’re drinking it now.

- Oh, okay.

Bert: Uh, uh, Ray-- uh, Stirling water comes out of the mountains down the canal.

I wouldn’t be scared to drink right out of that canal-- - Oh, good!

- --because it’s, it’s good, clean mountain water.

And most of the canals were only maybe eight or ten feet deep.

Rachel: How wide usually was it?

Bert: When it, when it would be deeper, it’d be wider.

I would say 12 feet at the top in just an ordinary canal and maybe 20 feet wide in the deep parts.

Do you wanna go run the plow?

Rachel: Yeah!

Okay, it-- well-- Man 1: Yeah, just let it go where it goes and I will-- Bert: Go with her.

Man 1: I will.

[kiss noise] Rachel: Okay.

♪♪ And so over, okay.

‘Kay.

Oh, this way?

Okay.

I mean, and so, if they’re gonna... so it was a matter of plowing, getting the soil loose, then they’d come back in with the scoopers so-- Man 1: Yeah.

Rachel: --you just keep doing this all day long.

Man 1: Yep.

♪♪ Rachel: Okay, so, if I wanna...

Okay.

I’ll say this, though, even with the horses doing all the work, it’s-- I-- this is-- [laughs] This isn’t easy.

Man 1: Let’s go.

[kiss noises] ♪♪ Rachel: Ooh, too much!

Too much!

Too much.

So, do I wanna s-- Man 1: ‘Kay, we’ll just head straight down the middle and try and fill her up again.

Rachel: So basically you were always bending down with this?

Man 1: Pretty much.

Rachel: Or did they have a better system where you didn’t have to bend?

[laughs] Man 1: Okay, dump her now.

Rachel: And I just... Man 1: Yep.

Rachel: [grunting] [breathless laugh] Okay.

[panting] Man 1: [indistinct] Rachel: This is a little bit nicer, though, ‘cause at least you get to sit during it, right?

Man 2: Get up!

Rachel: And I’m bracing my legs, right?

I can brace right here.

Man 1: Yeah, and then turn the wheels both ahead.

Rachel: Oh, okay.

Man 1: Don’t lower it yet.

We’re not cutting any dirt yet.

- I’m okay with-- [laughing] Okay.

Man 1: That’s good.

Rachel: Okay.

[rattling] [laughs] I’ll tell you what, my mother was much bett-- my mother actually drove a tractor when she was young, so she would’ve done, done this much better than I did it.

Having this opportunity gives me an ability to somewhat imagine my ancestors going through this experience.

Coming out into this open area, it must’ve been a-- uh, it’s, it’s tedious.

It’s so incremental.

I guess that’s what it is, it’s incremental.

Um, but overall, you see the effects.

I think that’s, that’s pretty remarkable.

♪♪ You know, there are, of course, sustainability issues in changing the ecosystem.

I think there definitely has to always be a balance.

I don’t know.

Maybe I just have a farming spirit, but there can be responsible progress.

I don’t think we need to say nothing can ever change because this is the way it was.

I think it’s the way we approach the change.

And so, having had this experience, I would like to know more specifically about the roles and what my family did in the canal and in the, the town building of Stirling.

♪♪ Lise: To find what role her ancestors played in the community, Rachel meets with Russell family member, Doug Cooper.

- So, one of the things we wanted to just, uh, inform you as you were plowing along here right in this area here is that your ancestors, the, the areas that they homesteaded here when they came to Stirling was just this area right here, right behind us.

This is, like, literally bordering the area where they were, where they had their homestead, and just somewhere over between here and those trees area there.

So, you’ve, you’ve plowed right, right beside their-- - Right by ‘em.

Doug: --farm.

- Well, that makes me feel happy ‘cause this is beautiful.

This would be a beautiful place if you were-- if it was a new place.

You know, they had left Utah and they had come here.

And even though parts of it were new, you know the, the canal.

they had done canals before, and they had homesteaded before, but what a beautiful place for them to come and be.

Doug: They, they actually enjoyed it a lot when they c-- they came here.

Rachel: I’m excited to hear a little more about that and the specifics.

Doug: Well, and what we can do is we can go back to town and, and we’ll talk a little more about that and, and discuss a little bit more about how the Russells fit into all that, so-- - Okay, I’d love that.

- All right, let’s go, yeah.

♪♪ Lise: Rachel’s great-great grandmother, Hannah Child Russell, was one of the most important members of the Stirling community.

As midwife, doctor, mother, and reassuring hand through the hardships of settlement, she was a necessary part of the system of early life in Stirling.

Her memory has remained treasured by her descendants there.

Doug: When they, uh, when they got here, there was five homes and about five tents when they arrived here, and it was just flat prairie.

There was no trees, it was very barren ground.

And they loaned them a, a tent, and in that tent is where they basically stayed until they were able to build their house.

One of the things, and actually it’s-- I wanted to show you this, what we have here-- - Oh wow.

- --is this is actually one of her journals that, uh, we believe it’s in her own handwriting.

And it’s fairly fragile.

[chuckles] And, uh, it’s been in the family.

And this is basically a journal of what, uh, what her history was.

And, and it’s just an amazing story that, that she has.

Hannah started to do some of the medical stuff.

She went around as, as a midwife.

Uh, she went out to, to, to help people out that were sick or, or to deliver babies.

She had an-- delivered anesthetic.

Also when people had passed away, uh, she prepared their bodies and such as well.

So, she had to not only carry on with the, the children and the home and her assignments, you know, in her faith, and-- but also the, the thing is she had to, um, do the midwifery thing and so-- Rachel: She was a busy woman.

Well, a lot of what you’ve kind of described reminds me a lot of my mother.

[emotionally] So, I’m excited to go talk to her about... [sniffs] ‘Cause I can praise my mother all the time, but some of these, these very attributes you’ve talked about are very much like my mother.

Doug: Hm.

- And, of course, I aspire to them, but-- [laughs] We’ll see.

Doug: So, I want to tell you what we’ve planned right now.

We have for you... - [chuckles] - --a whole bunch of Russells and some of the grandchildren.

Um, they are all gonna be over at the Mickelson.

We’ve, we’ve, we’ve called around.

There’s a lot of people.

Some of us haven’t even met ‘em.

So, we wanna take you over there.

♪♪ Lise: Doug and his wife, Veneta have gathered nearly 60 members of the Russell family at the historic Mickelson farmstead, a site that preserves the town as Adam and Hannah Russell would have known it.

[indistinct chatter] - Yes, this is our family.

- I appreciate that everyone’s wearing name badges.

Woman 2: Gina, I’m Veneta Cooper.

And this is Rachel, and she’s come to, um... Rachel: So good to meet you.

Woman 2: And this is Mac.

Rachel: We’re related, I take it-- yes, yes.

It’s so fun to see so many Russells!

[laughs] Oh, yep-- - I’m Barbara.

Rachel: I was gonna say, you’re a Russell, so yeah, we are related.

Oh, so you’re Robert, but they were calling you Bob earlier, right?

- Right, mm-hm.

- Okay, good to meet you.

- And you are...?

Rachel: Yeah, she’s [indistinct].

Bob: So, she’s [indistinct].

- And what do you have there?

Man 3: This is Hannah Marie, uh, Hannah Maria’s [Muh-ree-uh] bible.

- Uh-huh.

- I think they pronounce it Maria [Muh-rye-uh].

Man 3: Some people call it Maria [Muh-rye-uh], I’ve always heard Maria [Muh-ree-uh] Rachel: So you, you’re with the Maria [Muh-rye-uh] - Right.

Rachel: Okay.

So, you’re also in the camp-- or the, the Maria [Muh-rye-uh] then, not the Hannah Marie?

- What’s Hannah Marie?

It’s the same thing.

- Well, yeah.

- And that’s all it is.

Rachel: [laughing] - What’s the discussion?

Rachel: [chuckles] Man 3: And, and then you look in the back.

♪♪ - Oh, that’s such a precious-- Whoop!

I’m not very good at knowing, like, how many cousins that makes us removed.

[laughs] Woman 3: There’s lots.

Man 4: Yep.

- If we could please have your attention.

Uh, we’re certainly all excited today to have a special person come and visit the community of Stirling.

And as the mayor of the village of Stirling, we would like to present her with our Stirling history book.

- On behalf of the Russell Family, we would like to present a copy of Hannah’s, um, history that she wrote before she died.

- Thank you so much.

I feel, I feel rich in all these treasures.

Thank you!

- So, we have here a potamiwatami.

And I hope they let you take it across the line.

- Have a good time now.

So thank you for coming.

Rachel: I’ve really enjoyed the people I’ve met here.

The people all over the world are just kind and willing to help.

But I will tell you what, this was, this was probably not an easy thing.

I really do appreciate it.

Having this opportunity gives me an ability to somewhat imagine my ancestors going through this experience.

I think that’s, that’s pretty remarkable.

♪♪ I liked finding out that, that the, the building of the canal was a means for them to have the life that they hope for themselves.

I think it’s also a lesson for life too, you know, that you do-- [laughs] One does not build a canal in a day.

It takes a while, and it’s incremental.

[door clicks open] Mom?

- Were there very many there?

Were there-- - There were a lot!

They threw an entire party for me!

The entire town and every relation came out.

- Oh!

Rachel: They took me out to a farm and actually let me ride-- do the plow, and it was beautiful soil.

Oh Mom, you wouldn’t have believed how beautiful the land was there.

It was really amazing talking to this, this family member.

And, and the thing that really touched me was Hannah and the impact that she had made and how selfless she was and what a positive attitude she had.

And that’s definitely a heritage that I could draw on.

[emotional] He actually had her journal.

[sniffles] And it was this kind of half falling apart, just, just-- - The real thing?

- Yeah, the real thing!

And it was just a notepad!

Just a simple lined notepad.

So here, let’s move this out.

And so-- where is that, I wanna-- - So here is Hannah Ma-- Hannah Maria.

- Hannah Maria.

What if we looked into where they came from before that?

Rachel’s mom: Well, I, I was just looking at it and... it, it-- I, I remember hearing the name Pease before, but there’s so much genealogy.

And as I looked, I saw that these ancestors were actually in Salem, Massachusetts, and I thought, ooh, you know?

‘Cause the witch, the witch trials are always scary to me.

But I just felt like, uh... Rachel: That that was maybe something we should look into a little more?

Rachel’s mom: Yes, yes.

Lise: The Salem witch trials occurred in the Massachusetts colony in early 1692 and lasted over a year as more than 150 people were accused of practicing witchcraft.

19 of those were executed.

And though there were other incidences of accused witchcraft in early New England, none were so widespread, nor did they capture the public attention with such dismay and curiosity.

Rachel: Well, and another interesting thing that I, I didn’t ever think applied to us and our family was in my botany classes, I’ve heard that there was a fungus actually in the area, that it may have been a biological explanation for what happened.

Rachel’s mom: Well, I, I, I just went on the, the computer and I typed in Pease, Salem, and witch trials, and the very first thing that popped up said this woman’s name.

Elaine Pease.

And I guess she’d written an article about it.

- Uh-huh.

- And I sent her a request for information, and she has sent you this letter.

- Okay.

[rip] [rustling] It says, “I am so very happy that you contacted me, "and I’m delighted "that you found my article on Sarah Pease.

"It seems that you and my husband, Bill, "are distant cousins, "and we’re always glad to find new family members.

"I hope the information I’ve sent you "about Sarah and her family will give you a better idea "about what their lives were like "as they were caught up in the worst of the hysteria.

"I hope you will decide to learn more "about Sarah and Robert Pease, "and that you will find their lives "and the events around them "as interesting and as exciting as we have "over the years.

"Many good wishes from your cousin, Elaine Pease.” [paper rustles] ♪♪ Lise: The letter recommends that Rachel travel to the Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Salem, a home contemporary with her ancestor Sarah Pease to understand what led to the famous witch trials, to find out if her ancestor was among its victims, and to see if the fungus she’s heard about really was a factor.

She meets with Alison D’Amario, an expert on the witch trials.

♪♪ Rachel: So, what do you think some of the factors that w-- I mean, what, like, made the Salem witch trials blow up into such an event?

- Oh gosh, Rachel, that is such a question.

People have written books about it.

There are various ways of looking at it.

But some of the things that played into it, first of all, I think fear.

I think people in the 17th century had a lot to fear.

There had been a recent, um, smallpox epidemic, and that was interpreted as a sign of God’s displeasure.

You couldn’t be sure you’d have enough food for the winter, you couldn’t be sure that your house would stay up.

Lise: Though there are many theories, all of them acknowledge the complexity of the systems at play.

At its heart were two competing communities with differing moral attitudes: Salem Town and Salem Village, with a rising middle class that threatened the established order, and a religious culture that treated the unfamiliar with condemnation.

And into that mix came disturbing behavior from a handful of young women whose bizarre convulsions cried out for a source of blame.

The first accused were the marginal.

But eventually as the fear spread, nearly anyone became a candidate for accusation.

Alison: But people believed them.

And that, I think, plays into the fear that was just in peoples’ lives that they weren’t safe.

They weren’t safe here.

Why would they think they were safe?

There had been 100 cases of witchcraft in New England before 1692.

So this didn’t happen in a vacuum.

There was precedent.

Rachel: Yeah, I have a question.

You may not know about it.

Because of my background in botany and horticulture, I love those sort of questions.

Have you-- I’m not-- know, know-- I don’t know if I’m gonna pronounce this right-- Alison: Ergot.

- Ergotism.

Yeah, ergotism!

Because they-- I’ve read that the, you know, it had-- is it related to LSD almost that it can... Alison: Yes, yeah.

Lise: One factor, which was certainly not considered at the time and is debated today, is the role the environment may have played.

Ergot, the fungus Rachel has heard about, grows on grains like rye and thrives in damp conditions.

When it is milled with the grain and consumed, it can cause hallucinogenic effects.

Some scholars have argued that it was ergot manifesting itself in the strange behavior of the young girls first afflicted in Salem.

Alison: In 1992, during the 300th anniversary of the trials, we had a toxocologist come to speak.

We had a medical conference.

- Okay.

- And according to him, the m-- the symptoms of ergotism do not match the symptoms that were recorded.

So, that conference convinced me that it’s probably not ergot.

♪♪ Rachel: Although she was-- she definitely had some opinions why it maybe wasn’t a factor, I, I think ergotism is interesting because sometimes we, we do, we look all around for psychological and different reasons, and sometimes it’s just as simple as, you know, maybe something environmental was causing a problem.

Lise: To investigate ergot and infected rye bread as possible environmental factors in the Salem witch trials, Rachel visits Bryan Connolly, Massachusetts State Botanist.

Bryan: I think it’s a plausible hypothesis.

- Okay.

- Um, there is some good circumstantial evidence that, you know, this could have been-- - Could have been.

- --a, uh, a major outbreak of the-- what they call the convulsive ergotism.

The fungus, Claviceps purpurea, is the source of LSD, or, at least, the precursor to LSD.

And it can induce hallucinations.

The, uh, the fungus infects several different grasses.

Um, rye is especially susceptible to it.

Rachel: ‘Kay.

- And it, uh, seems they were growing lots of rye during that time.

Rachel: Is there anything that is like a visible symptom of this?

So if you went out into a field, would you be able to say, oh look, this is infected, this is not, or... - Most definitely.

- Okay.

- Let’s see, we have a specimen here.

- All right.

- This was, uh, provided by, uh, Doctor Robert Wick at the University of Massachusetts.

Um, these-- this is rye with ergot.

- Okay.

But honestly, like, would you mill this?

Bryan: I would not.

And, um, but they did not know it was a f-- a fungus.

I mean, ergotism was a major problem throughout the Middle Ages for centuries.

And it, uh, seems they were growing lots of rye during that time.

Rachel: Was there a particular reason they were growing more rye, or is-- Bryan: They were, they were, um, they were getting wheat rust, um, on their wheat crops.

Rachel: Okay.

Bryan: I’ve brought a, a plant, um, which came from Europe.

And so, this, there was no alternate host to wheat rust, uh, in this area natively, so I have a hypothesis that they brought this over and that this caused a fungal problem with wheat, and the wheat was failing, so they switched over to rye, and then the rye was more susceptible to the ergot fungus.

- Okay.

Bryan: People have geographically mapped out where the affected victims of the, the witchcraft were, and a lot of them seemed to be focused around the Putnam Homestead, and it was, um, they had converted a lot of wetland and, and then-- and they were growing the rye on the converted wetland.

And so, perhaps the, the, the Putnam Homestead had a very, uh, strong concentration of the, the ergotized grain.

I, I mean it’s, it’s an interesting plausible hypothesis, but it’s all, all circumstantial evidence, and-- - So do you buy into it yet, or-- Bryan: Well, there, there has to be a social context, and, and um, this could well have been a trigger to the mass hysteria.

- Okay.

Like, maybe not sufficient in and of itself but if-- Bryan: But, but within a social framework, it could’ve set off this whole-- you know, could’ve been the spark that lit the fire of, of this whole witchcraft trial.

♪♪ Rachel: But I think what’s interesting about it, even if it was true or is true that the, the fungus played a role in changing the minds and what the people saw, it was still a sociological trigger.

♪♪ Lise: Rachel still wants to know about Sarah Pease’s experience in the witch trials and to find out if she was among its victims.

So, to do that, she meets with Salem historian, Richard Trask, at the Salem Village meetinghouse, a replica of the building where many accused witches would’ve been brought to face their charges.

Richard: Your ancestor, Sarah Pease, along with about 140 others were accused of practicing witchcraft.

Rachel: So, she was accused.

Richard: Uh, your ancestor, uh, was actually first examined in the original of this meetinghouse.

We have one document that shows that she was sent to jail the day of her examination, and, um, we know that she was in jail for at least a number of months.

In this document, this is called a warrant, and it says that “you are in their Majesties’ names hereby required to apprehend and bring forthwith--“ and here’s her name.

“Sarah Pease, "wife of Robert Pease of Salem Weaver, "who stands charged "with sundry acts of witchcraft by her committed lately on the body of Mary Warren of Salem.” And this was issued on May 23rd.

We can assume certain things happened from what we know about that day, and that is she would’ve been brought here.

The magistrates would’ve been seated at this table-- - Now would that be a public meeting?

- Yes.

- Oh, okay, this would-- - Open to the public, so you would’ve had a lot of people here.

Right in front are seated the accusing girls, including Mary Warren in this case.

And she’s asked, uh, what do you know about witchcraft?

What have you done?

Uh, have you afflicted these children?

Probably said no, I don’t know anything about it.

And some of the children would have then probably given evidence.

In many cases at examinations, the afflicted children start going into all sorts of afflictions saying that the spectre of the accused is hurting them.

Biting them, pinching them, sticking them with pins, that kind of thing.

- Why do you think-- so she was eventually found innocent.

- No, she wasn’t.

- She wasn’t?

- At least, we don’t have any documents that show that.

The documents show us she was, um, cried out against, a warrant was sworn to have her brought before the magistrates, the magistrates apparently sha-- saw cause to have her jailed, and then there’s nothing.

- There’s nothing.

Okay, for some reason I-- - So what’s the nothing?

- It, well-- - What it probably means is very often, some of the witches who are brought to trial have many depositions sworn out against them by neighbors, by friends-- former friends, by even relatives.

We don’t find any here.

Chances are she was in jail, and when the trials began, just like today, the DA isn’t gonna go after people who he doesn’t have a lot of evidence against.

He goes after the ones that he thinks are gonna do a slam dunk.

- Yeah.

- And she was not one of those who was brought to trial.

- Okay.

- So I think what they maybe did was say, We don’t really have much evidence.

The-- you know, there’s a lot of misconceptions about the witchcraft, and, and one is they were simpletons, uh, they just didn’t understand what was happening, the children were able to hoodwink them and so forth.

You’ve gotta think that these were-- a-at least the magistrates were quite educated people.

They had been around for a while.

They had been in all sorts of trials and examinations.

For them to think that something was wrong with these afflicted children, the children and the young women had to really be doing things that were so different, so un-normal, uh, as to, uh, make a-adults think this was happening.

And just because someone lived 300 years ago and weren’t as sophisticated as we are, didn’t have computers or whatever, they had a lot of natural, uh, innate, uh, sense.

And this was a profound thing.

Lise: Though not many details have survived about Sarah’s particular experience during these months in jail, this much can be assumed: her family would’ve been charged a weekly sum for the cost of her leg irons.

They would’ve been held in suspicion and ostracized.

And Sarah, in an unheated and damp cell with inadequate nutrition, would’ve been fearful of being the next one called to trial-- every person having yet been called being found guilty and executed.

♪♪ Richard: We also have on the property a little family burial ground.

And the neat thing about that is, um, we do have a monument to two of the witchcraft victims, uh, in the cemetery.

♪♪ Rachel: What I found really interesting was the context of the situation and how every story is a story in and of itself but is part of a larger context.

I’m so grateful that I live in the era that I live now because as a kind of an independent woman who’s kind of used to doing what I want, I k-- I have that freedom.

But in many generations there, that would’ve been a sure sign that you were different and that you weren’t toeing the line, and that you didn’t have normative behaviors, and so, can I really imagine living in a time where I couldn’t be myself?

Yes, I can to some extent, and that idea [voice breaking] of toeing the line... [emotionally] and not making waves because if you did, you stood out, and things happened.

[sobbing] ‘Cause it reminds me of my childhood.

[high-pitched whimper] You know, my father was abusive, and I guess-- and I hadn’t really made that correlation till just then, but, like, that was-- that’s-- that is what you had to do.

You had to not-- like, you didn’t cause waves if you were just quiet and did what you were supposed to do.

You didn’t draw attention to yourself.

I guess that’s where I, I can imagine that because I think I did that a lot as a child, tried to fall-- fly under the radar.

Uh, you know, go along, be, be quiet, be good, not draw attention to myself.

Now I don’t think there’s a need to do that, so I get to just be myself, and I’m, I’m grateful for that and that as being part of the, the society that I live in right now that there are no reper-- repercussions for being myself.

♪♪ Lise: Rachel returns home, excited to share with her mom what she’s learned in Salem and thinking about where she wants to go next as she travels further back in her family history.

♪♪ Rachel: She probably wasn’t executed, but there’s no conclusive evidence one way or the other.

There just isn’t any more information.

But, you know, in some ways, that’s just, like, whetted my appetite for more.

So, I’ve had these two awesome experiences.

Here I have learned about this part of your family, but now, I’m kind of actually, like, we sh-- we have to go further.

Like, maybe, like, one of the countries of origin.

Rachel’s mom: I mean, th-- almost everybody here came from England.

Rachel: Oh here, yeah, England, England.

Here’s New York.

You know, and Scotland.

[rustling] Rachel’s mom: I... [rustling] You know how I just love Grandpa [indistinct].

- Yeah, I do.

- Grandpa Peter.

He’s from Holland, and that’s new.

And in fact, I’ve got some things here that were Aunt Frida’s, and sh-- you know, she passed away... it was a couple of years ago, but she wanted to go back to Holland so badly, and it was so important to her.

[rustling] But maybe you could finish her quest.

[sniffs] But if you look at this, and... you look at how far back that goes.

Rachel: Hey, wow!

Early 1600s?

If that’s-- you know what, that’s around the same time as the tulip mania was going on, I think.

That would be crazy if they had-- I wish we had more information where-- well, and you know what, even if we did, I don’t even know where tulip mania-- if it was, you know, the entire country.

- Well, good, because now you have a interest in your, you know, interest in your-- from your schooling and all, and, and I have an interest from our family tree, which I’m sure you do, too.

And you know, Aunt Frida always wanted to go back there, and she never could.

And you can go back for her!

So, that’s where you wanna go?

- Yeah!

As soon as I can.

[laughs] Lise: Tulip mania, the event Rachel has heard about, occurred in the Dutch Golden Age, a time of economic prosperity and complex cultural change.

It is widely referred to as the first economic bubble in history.

Rachel’s ancestor, Huygen Arckesteijn, 13 generations removed from her, lived during this period.

Before Rachel makes her way to the Netherlands, she visits art historian, Dr. Martha Peacock, to get a better idea of how this simple flower could’ve caused the crisis she’s heard about.

Martha: What happened was in the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch Republic became very wealthy, uh, trading tulip bulbs.

And, uh, as they began to trade these things, they became, uh, more and more expensive.

There was even a bulb that sold for what a skilled craftsperson could make in a year’s time.

It became a sort of bubble until we get to February of 1637, and then suddenly, the crash occurred.

And it did cause a kind of economic disaster.

♪♪ Lise: Rachel is ready to travel to the Netherlands, a country she’s been fond of for many years.

And like her Aunt Frida, has always wanted to visit.

♪♪ Rachel: I love this country right off.

So many of the trees are familiar to me.

And then, the fact that there’s water everywhere.

The canals are beautiful.

If I had been asked before where would I like to go most in the world, I would’ve said Amsterdam.

I would’ve said the Netherlands.

They have an amazing land ethic.

And that really appeals to me, and the people are frank, and they’re practical, and it’s, uh, it’s beautiful, and it’s green, and it’s lush, and that’s exciting to me.

♪♪ Lise: Her first stop is the Stadsarchief in Amsterdam.

She’s looking for information about ancestor Huygen’s economic status, hoping it will tell her if he had a role to play in the tulip crisis.

♪♪ Rachel is unable to find any documents about Huygen.

However, she does find one about his son, Cornelis, who was born at the time of tulip mania.

This may be enough to infer his father, Huygen’s place in Dutch society and potential involvement in tulip mania.

She meets with archivist, Harmen Snel, who helps her interpret the document.

Harmen: So, this document is from 25 years after tulip mania.

So, this is a payment for the taxes, uh, from a piece of land with a house and a barn in the area of Delft, a little village.

Your ancestor, Cornelis, is mentioned here and because he married [indistinct] And this [indistinct], she was the widow of the man who owned this land.

Rachel: Okay.

Harmen: And in that time, people with possessions married others with possessions.

They didn’t marry someone who had totally nothing.

So, the fact that he was married into this family-- - With-- who had quite a bit.

- Who had-- - He had-- - That makes it very clear that he was not very poor as well.

Rachel: Okay.

Harmen: So-- Rachel: Does that give any indication of maybe where their social standing was?

Harmen: I think they were not in the, in the, the top 10 of the area, I mean-- but they had land, and they had possessions.

They were, I think, quite well off.

Rachel: Now, does the name actually mean anything?

Harmen: Arckesteijn.

It, it’s, it’s a very old-fashioned word.

The name is probably derived from a farm or a house.

Steijn means-- is originally very well connected to stone.

Many, many people lived in wooden houses and couldn’t afford a stone house.

- So, stone house was better than a wood house.

- A wood house easily burns.

- Well, that’s true.

But you can find stones on the ground.

- Maybe in the United States.

But most of the important parts of, uh, of the Netherlands don’t have very many stones.

It’s more water and clay.

No stones.

Both: [laughing] Harmen: They have to make the stones.

Rachel: How would I find out more about this family line and if tulip mania could’ve affected them?

Harmen: Concerning the tulip mania, I would advise you, uh, because nothing really looks like what it is, uh, you should talk to Ms. Anne Goldgar.

She is an expert on tulip mania, and she can really tell you everything about it.

♪♪ Rachel: I guess we don’t know whether they did participate in tulip mania, but they were certainly in a financial situation that if they had wanted to, they really could have.

That makes it a little bit, you know, more exciting, and-- Lise: Rachel takes Harmen’s advice and contacts Anne Goldgar, a prominent authority on tulip mania to find out what really happened in that period of Dutch history and to get an answer as to what Huygen’s role may have been in those events.

♪♪ Anne asks Rachel to meet her at the Frans Hal Museum where many painters of the Dutch masters are held including one that reflects the social backlash against those that participated in tulip mania.

♪♪ Rachel: I, I did have an ancestor who was living during that time in the area around Delft.

Um, he, he was well-to-do.

And then as far as we know, he had a manor house, he had property.

Anne: He had a manor house.

Rachel: Mm-hm.

Anne: He sounds like the kind of person who could maybe have been part of it.

If we wanted to think about tulip mania and your ideas about tulip mania, I thought you might be interested in looking at this painting.

Um, this is a painting by Jan Brughel II.

And monkeys are a symbol of foolishness.

All of these idiotic, stupid monkeys are doing all the things which have to do with the tulip trade.

People are counting money here.

Um, up here, they’re feasting which is seen as being one of the things which is in excess about tulip mania that everybody’s involved in.

And then in the background, we have these various images to do with death.

Um, there’s, uh, somebody who is being killed in a duel, and here we have a funeral.

And there was a lot of death imagery around the time because of the idea that, uh, that the dea-- that the death of their finances was their death.

There’s an idea that’s given by the s-- the satirists who write about it, or, in this case, paint about it, that, you know, this is a very uncertain thing to put your faith in.

There was very little of this propaganda until after, after the crash.

And that painting is one of those propaganda pieces.

But actually, that’s not the truth.

I mean, most of what you read or see about tulip mania, and it comes up all the time now because of things like the financial crisis, if you actually look at the details, there are a variety of, of aspects of it which aren’t true.

The first thing is that it’s this kind of crazy time.

And I really don’t think it’s that crazy a time.

It’s, uh, it seems to be a relatively rational object of, uh, of investment because people were buying it.

And there was no reason to think that it was going to crash.

Rachel: I think that that’s what’s really interesting to me is, like, the idea of sustainability.

- People always say, Oh, tulip bulbs, stupid.

Why would anybody-- why would anybody invest in this?

But the fact is that they were valuable.

And people, and people thought that, that tulips were wonderful, and-- - And they’re beautiful.

- --there is no really intrinsic reason why they shouldn’t have been expensive.

Um, uh, you could say the same thing about gold, you know?

It’s just because we like it.

I mean, that’s one thing.

Another thing is the idea that people are going bankrupt.

That’s really not true.

Rachel: Right, and the entire economy collapsed, theoretically.

- Yes, yeah.

I mean, I’ve heard that theory before.

First of all, not only did the entire economy not collapse, but I couldn’t find anybody who went bankrupt that you could identify that they’ve gone bankrupt because of tulip mania.

And the other thing which I think is important, the myth is that everybody in the country’s involved, and that’s why you thought that, that, that the p-- that everything collapses.

But in fact, it’s, it’s quite a small group of people as far as I can tell.

You might ask the question, why do people talk about tulip mania if, in fact, people didn’t go bankrupt-- - Exactly.

- Well, my view of it is that there is actually a crisis going on, uh, but it’s not a financial crisis, particularly, you know?

People are buying tulips and then they refuse to, uh, actually pay up when the time to pay comes.

They would say things like, I will do as another has done, meaning nobody else is paying, I’m not gonna pay.

And you find that over and over again.

People are, are relying always on, uh, credit relations and on having to trust each other.

- This has no relation to [indistinct] does it?

- Uh, it’s, um... it, it, it can be a big problem.

Rachel: So, with my ancestor, even being at the right place and at the right time, how likely is it that he was even at all involved?

Anne: It’s possible.

And Delft is a place where there were some people interested in it.

I haven’t done research specifically in Delft.

But, um, for you to answer this question, then yeah, you’re gonna have to go to Delft and look in the archives there.

That’s, that’s my advice to you is go to Delft.

Lise: Rachel will go to Delft to find the answers that may be there about her ancestor’s involvement in tulip mania.

But before she does, Anne invites Rachel to take a tour with her of the Flora Holland Aalsmeer flower market where she can see an example of a complex modern system of trade they helped originate.

Holland is the center of the flora cultural world, and the market is the center of that.

The market is the third largest building in the world, and some 20 million flowers pass through its doors daily.

Each morning, traders gather in the auction room where a price clock starts at a high point and winds down.

The buyer is the first trader on the floor to push buy when the price gets low enough to bite but before anyone else has.

This type of complex market system, a staple of modern life, was developed in large measure by the Dutch during the time of tulip mania.

♪♪ ♪♪ Rachel: People had told me coming here that, oh, bicycles are really popular.

You’ll love it.

And I am amazed, like, how many people bicycle.

Like, there’s bicycles everywhere.

I could totally live here.

♪♪ I think what I have learned is, like, that we are, as humanity, we kinda follow through the same patterns, the same system.

As I’ve been trying to figure out, like, what is my role in life, and what do I want to accomplish, what do I want to contribute?

I’m not sure if I have the answers, but I’ve also come to a realization that maybe when I find it, it will come to me.

And that it will come to me, and that it will happen.

It will happen more naturally, and I need to be living my life and doing the best I can with that.

I may not need to seek it out, it may find me.

♪♪ - You really left us hanging there, Rachel.

[laughs] I know you went to Delft.

What did you find out there?

- It was, it was amazing.

We were able to find the location of the ancestral home.

And it had-- it had been a stone manor house, and it had been granted to that family in the 1300s.

- Oh!

- And it was in the area of-- called negenhuizen, which is nine houses.

And-- on ev-- it’s noted on most maps even though it really is only nine farms.

But the manor house is long since gone, but-- so we, we went to Delft.

We went to that area that’s-- it’s south-- I’m trying to think.

Southwest of Schipluiden just out of Delft, and went there and dr-drove.

But you know, you’re driving along and you’re like, well, how am I gonna know if it’s the right place?

It’s just nine farms.

What’s gonna, like, set it apart?

Blah, blah, blah.

What, what’s-- you know, we were gonna drive past it and not even know we’ve seen it.

You know, it’s not like there’s gonna be a sign pointing, being like, right here, this is where it was.

And-- except, though, we turned around the corner, and there it was.

There was this beautiful white farmhouse that said Arckesteijn across it.

And I did, I just started crying.

Lise: Ah!

- Because, you know, like, not being sure-- Lise: The family home is there.

Rachel: Or, you know, and it-- and so, we stopped and talked with the f-- the fellow who lived there now, and he is not an Arckesteijn, but he had bought it from an Arckesteijn but had liked the name up there.

And so, even though the Arckesteijns had originally had the big manor house, yeah, at some point, they were in the farm.

And it was still agricultural land, and it was beautiful.

And you could look across it and see the same land that my ancestors had seen, you know, roughly 700 years.

And it was, it was-- I did, I cried.

I cried.

Lise: That’s a profound experience.

Rachel: Yeah.

- Did you make a decision as to whether they were involved in tulip mania?

- I think they had to have been to some measure.

Even though Anne kind of, you know, was able to debunk a lot of the theories about, like, oh, everyone was involved, people were crashed.

Because of the situation where they were economically and geographically, and his-- the, the fellow had married the next mayor’s town’s daughter.

I mean, so there were-- the, the connections-- Lise: The connections.

- Yeah, the societal connections there.

He had to have, at some measure, been involved with it, or, at least, you know, really been aware of it’s, of it’s going on around him.

Lise: Sure.

You actually brought some little tidbits back with you.

- I did.

- Will you talk about them?

- Well, sure.

Because I love horticulture, I love plants.

And so, there was this idea of seeing that land there and wanting to bring it with me somehow.

You know, so, I took some photographs as well.

But I made a little mossery.

And a mossery is a Victorian thing where, um, a little idea where they would enclose moss in, in an enclosed-- and it becomes a little... holds the moisture in and, you know, you have to spritz it a little bit.

So, there’s some moss from-- that I brought back from the homestead.

Lise: So, this moss is still alive, and you spritz it to keep it a living organism.

From your family’s-- wow.

- Yeah, so this moss came from, from my ancestral land.

And then there was a beautiful horse chestnut, which is one of my favorite trees.

There was a beautiful horse chestnut on the property that-- with the name, the Arckesteijn.

And I went through, and I found a couple that didn’t seem very viable, whatever, and I found this nut that it’s now time to start planting it for the fall.

So I’m gonna plant it soon.

Lise: And will you?

- I am!

And so, this is-- I-- you know, who knows.

It may not be viable.

I’m trying to-- - There’s a way to tell if it-- Rachel: Well, especially if it’s rattling inside, so it’s probably desiccated, and it’s probably no good.

But it’s still-- it’s not rattling, so I’m hoping it’s still viable.

I’m gonna plant that.

And then I also brought some little, um, mountain hawthorn berries to try.

Lise: Oh, but also, you’re wearing a pin that I wanna know about.

Rachel: Yes.

This pin, um, was beautiful.

I-- at the Deflt archives when we were looking there-- um, you know, it’s in Dutch, but the only word that I could read said “fruit.” And because so much of this journey has been, yeah, looking at-- from my fruit, I-- you know, I keyed in instantly to, like, fruit.

And I took the pin, and we asked the fellow there at the archive, What does this pin mean?

And I’m not gonna butcher the, the tran-- the, the pronunciation of the saying, but it basically says “the good farmer will yield good fruit.” You know, like the diligent farmer.

The farmer that tries yields good fruit, which was-- it touched, it touched my heart.

- Well, there’s another analogy I just wanna at least touch on and that is the canal analogy that you’ve sort of formed since going through your family history.

Let’s talk about that briefly before we have to say goodbye.

Rachel: One of the things that I thought was amazing was this, this theme of canals and the idea that canals are not just a pathway of water, but they’re a deliberate pathway.

They’re a path that is chosen.

And one of the things that beca-- you know, became evident as I was trying to help-- well, you know, learn how they had dug the canals in Alberta was, like, how deliberate they are.

And they are-- it’s a choice, and it’s incremental, and that it, it-- like, making a life for yourself is you can m-- take the path of a, of a stream the easy way, or you can make a determined path.

And, and that's not gonna be fast, and it’s not gonna be easy, but you determine that path.

Lise: And you’ll still get where you need to go.

Rachel: Yeah.

- Rachel Broadbent, thank you so much for telling us all about your wonderful family history.

Rachel: Thank you for having me.

- You are welcome.

Thank you for joining us, and please join us on our website at byutv.org for the continuation of this conversation with Rachel and many more.

I’m Lise Simms, and I’ll see you on the next Generations Project.

♪♪