Integrating Historical Research and the Paranormal

Photo of the Author

I’m not much of a blogger. In fact, I’ve never been much of a journaler. I have a bad habit of starting diaries, journals, and daily entries, but dropping them after a few weeks or even a day. Funny enough, I am a historian. Currently, I teach high school history, but my heart has always belonged to historical and archival research. I am most at home reading probates and land records. I comb estate and census documents in the hopes of finding a never before discovered clue about a person from the past. And of course, finding the holy grails of letters and journals to find insight on how this person lived, how they moved through society, to discover what they thought of political and social events. Every person that ever lived is a mystery to discover, and I treat their records as a treasure hunt. Ironically, I know I’m leaving very little of myself behind. Most of what can be found of me is online, and most historians agree we are in a digital dark age, and unaware of it. 

That makes me an inherent hypocrite. This blog will most likely be long lost with our social media footprints. If something takes out our data centers and networks, will our content ever be restored? I often wonder what our ancestors have lost in the passages of time; what were their intentions, their passions? It is luck if their estate inventory even survives.  

Last Will and Testimony of Gerret Vanswearingen (1636-1698) found in Maryland, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1777. Note the messy handwriting. Just one example of the hurdles historians have with materials.

I’m a paranormal investigator. Reactions to this revelation range from pique curiosity to revulsion. The minor backlash I’ve received tends to end up with people quietly disassociating from me. They respond with, “But you seemed so normal?” “Why waste your time with things that aren’t real?” or pleading for my immortal soul. The meanest, but funniest was a simple “Ew, gross.” with the person walking away. You would think with all of the paranormal shows on T.V. and social media these days, Fortean topics would be more accepted in conversation. Overall, the responses do tend to be positive, even if the person is wary. 

I grew up in a haunted house, but that’s a story for later. What is important is at a young age I became obsessed with the paranormal. I begged my parents for book money to buy every paranormal book I could find from Aliens to Bigfoot, but my hyperfocus were ghost stories. The one commonality with ghost stories is history, and because I zoned in on ghosts, being knowledgeable about history was essential. I would have never become a historian if it had not been those ghosts who haunted my childhood home. 

Just a picture of me fangirling over Mothman.

I became a “professional” ghost hunter in 2016, when I finally found a team to work with. With that first team, we often volunteered to lead groups of people through known haunted locations. This helped shape my investigative style and gave me the experience I needed under my belt. Since we investigated the same places over and over again, I could experiment with equipment and questions. And because I’m a nerd at heart, I would uncover what I could about a location. I took what I learned as a historian in college and applied it to property research. I also combined my tools as an amateur genealogist to uncover what I could about the people associated with the property. I used this research and “discoveries” to guide my questioning during investigations and EVP sessions. The results were immediate. Activity increased with relevant questioning, and soon we were getting responses, sometimes out loud.

Today this is standard practice for me at a new location. The paranormal team I am now with, Chesapeake Paranormal, uses the research to bring up events and names that the spirits might be familiar with. Instead of plastering them with the usual “Is there anyone here with us?", “Do you know you are dead?” “Do you have a message?” questions can be more direct and personal. I will create a post in the future for questions to ask spirits. On the other hand, I have run into other investigators that for them, history of the location is an afterthought. In one conversation I had online, another investigator thought I was “wasting my time” with research, and that the spirits or ghosts will give us all the answers we need.

I’ve gone into many investigations “blind”. In fact, when I go to an “established” haunt (think Trans Allegheny or Waverly) I often don’t do much historical research other than maybe watch a ghost show that the site was featured on. There have been last minute home or business investigations I’ve joined in on and had no time for any research. And I can tell you that there tends to be a difference in results. When we have research and names to guide us in our questioning, the results are more consistent than going in without knowing and asking the usual generic questions.  And to those saying the ghosts give us all the answers we need, in some cases they “confirm” the history, and there have been other times that they have given us “information” that is conflicting.  But the key point is we get a response either way. 

I’m hoping through this blog and social media, that I can give some history research tips for investigators. I don’t see many paranormal teams integrating research, and it’s something I would like to see in the field more often. Even if you are not a fan of ghost hunting, these topics and tips could help further your own historical and genealogical research. Thank you for starting this journey with me. I’m not sure where we will go, but I do know it will be an adventure!

-The Fortean Historian