spooky family tree

Seems that genealogy can uncover the identity of haunted spirits. Very interesting....
Check out the below article...Now, THAT is spooky.


*Oct 26, 2006 "Serving The Communities of Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Edgecomb" Vol 129, Number 43

Haunted: The Welch House Inn by Lisa Kristoff

Seasons Greetings…

It is that unique time of year when spirits are high (and sometimes seen), when a leaf dancing across a street on a dark and windy night can make you turn and take in your surroundings with the slightest hint of trepidation.

It is the time of year pumpkins become jack-o-lanterns, when spider webs loom large like those that housed giant arachnids in Elvira's collection of B-horror movies, and when adults and children are transformed into otherworldly personas.

It is the time of year when children bob for apples, when haunted hay rides transport passengers by frightful vignettes, and when Boris Karloff's "Monster Mash" booms from radios and at Halloween parties.

It is also the time of year when ghost stories are told and re-told.

Over the years we have heard about the ghosts on Burnt Island, the Kenniston Hill Inn B&B, and the Opera House at Boothbay Harbor.

This year we have found a new addition to the haunted list, The Welch House Inn. The Welch House Inn is located at 56 McKown Street in Boothbay Harbor and is open year round.

When current owners Susan Hodder and Michael Feldmann purchased the inn four years ago, they were told that a benevolent spirit lodged there.

"I was skeptical," said Hodder. "They told us that housekeepers refused to work alone on the third floor because they experienced uneasy feelings, that objects were moved and that there were unexplained door closings."

And then the mysterious occurrences began.

An antique mantle clock, formerly on the second floor and now moved to the third floor, would begin to chime abruptly - despite the fact that it had never been wound and no key exists to do so…

While visiting his daughter, Hodder's father was standing on the back deck area looking out at the harbor. He turned and looked up at the inn where there are three windows below an inn sign. While looking at the windows he saw the figure of a woman pass by the first, second, and third. And gasped.

To pass by the third window the "woman" would have had to pass through the wall of a room. The third window is located in a hallway…

Housekeeper Tammy Packard has worked at the inn for the last four years. Her contact with the ghost occurred within her first six months of employment.

"It's hard to describe," said Packard. "I just sensed when she was in a room with me."

Packard says that during one "visit" the "woman," told Packard her name was Rebecca.

Packard described her appearance as that of a woman in her late 20s or early 30s. She wears a high-collared garment of stiff fabric with a pink-hued bodice and her dark blonde hair is in a bun.

Packard, who is sensitive to the spirit world, says that Rebecca is lonely; that she had few women friends when she lived at the inn because she was a "forward thinker" desiring more than the expected woman's life.

Kjirsten (K.J.) Barker, an off-season housekeeper, has also seen Rebecca and witnessed unexplained phenomena.

Barker began her employment at the inn in September of 2005. She, too, has sensed "Rebecca's" presence and has heard the chiming clock.

"Sometimes when the clock is chiming the gears are moving and sometimes they are not," Barker said.

According to both Packard and Barker, "Rebecca" favors room seven, but has been in room eight.

It was while she was working in room seven that Barker saw "Rebecca."

"I was cleaning, and standing at the bureau. The mirror on the bureau allows you to see into the hallway," Barker said. "I watched her walk by the room towards the third floor. High-collared dress, dark blonde hair in a ponytail."

No one had ever described "Rebecca's" appearance to Barker, the only difference between the "Rebecca" seen by Packard was the hair…

"The air was electric," recalled Barker.

Another instance occurred while Barker was in room seven emptying the wastebasket. The plastic liner bag suddenly began rolling across the floor, out the door of the room into the hallway and up the floor towards the third floor.

"I ran out calling to Tammy, thinking she was upstairs, but, no one was there," Barker said.

There were no open windows, no drafts. Was the movement of the bag due to the whooshing movement of stiff skirts?

Packard says that in room eight, she turns on the radio that is suddenly changed to the same country station - seemingly on its own.

Both women say that sometimes there are indentations on the beds in rooms seven and eight, as though someone had been seated there.

"Rebecca" most often appears in fall and winter and is very particular about who she appears to. Hodder has never seen her.

However, she does experience the sensation of water droplets falling on her from time to time…

Feldmann, though he does not deny the existence of spirits, has not seen "Rebecca," or had any sense of her.

Hodder's daughter, Leah, has sensed her, but also has not seen her.

"Rebecca" does not frighten the owners and employees of the Welch House. Barker says that she is very welcoming; that the experience is not in the least daunting.

But, who was "Rebecca?" Did a "Rebecca" actually live at the inn?

Intrigued, I decided to do a little investigating.

West Boothbay Harbor resident Jane Carmolli Ribble was a frequent visitor to the residence as a child. It was the home of her great-grandmother, Isabelle Welch Hodgdon.

Ribble had no recollection of having heard anything about a "Rebecca" in the family. Nor, had there ever been any talk of spirits in the house. Still, she offered to check the genealogy and get back to me.

"You are not going to believe this," were Ribble's first words to me after consulting the family tree.

Entered in the book, without a birth year or death year: Rebecca Hodgdon, daughter of Thomas Hodgdon (d. 1805)…

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Boothbay Register Boothbay Harbor, ME Tel: 207.633.4620
http://boothbayregister.maine.com/2006-10-26/haunted_inn.html rev 2006-10-27

*found on the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/