Grandma got kilt by some injuns

Until yesterday, I don't think I ever heard of the Deerfield Massacre.  I can't recall it from any history class I have ever  taken.  During a session of digging up old bones, I came across a large family of Englishmen deep in my family tree from the Deerfield Settlement in Massachusetts in 1704.  What jumped out at me was that of the 7th and 8th generation great grandparents and their kin, several had died on the same day, February 29,1704, which made me mighty curious.  It didn't take long to discover that most of my ancestors there were either killed or kidnapped during that historic event in Queen Anne's War.  Curiously enough, I descend from these English settlers through a genealogy line going back though multiple layers of my father's French Canadian roots because of those who were kidnapped and assimilated into the French culture during the early days of Montreal's history. Wikipedia has a good synoptic account of this raid and I also found a good narrative account in the archives of American Heritage, that explores the first-hand perspective of Rev. John Williams, who survived the attack. In a nutshell, over 50 were murdered, about half being children, and over 100 were kidnapped and taken as hostages back to Montreal, where they were divided up as slaves by the victorious Frenchmen and their Native American allies.Some escaped their captivity (my great grandfather Thomas French) and made it back to Massachusetts, some assimilated with the French and others assimilated into the tribes of the Abanaki and Iroquoi Indians. RIP Thomas French, who escaped, his wife, Marie Catherine Catlin, who was murdered and her parents, RIP, John Catlin and Mary Baldwin, who were murdered. Additionally, Marthe Madeleine French, daughter of Thomas and Marie Catherine Catlin was kidnapped and assimilated into the French culture, eventually marrying my 6th generation great grandfather, Jacques Roy (Roi). Can you imagine having to endure watching your children being murdered right in front of you and then being forced to travel through three feet of snow, walking from Massachusetts to Montreal in the dead of winter?