She was born and bred in Plainview, NY. After moving to Huntington, the writer and photographer became an expert on the area's history and delivered annual lectures on the town's past. Her audience grew exponentially when she was asked to speak about some of the ghost stories she heard while researching older homes and other locations in the area.
In 2005, Long Island medium and paranormal investigator Joe Giaquinto came to one of Ms. Brosky's lectures, and the two subsequently collaborated on two books about local paranormal activity.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Ms. Brosky about her tales of Long Island's many ghosts. As she puts it, she's "a historian first, and a ghost investigator second."
About.com: We've all heard spooky stories about paranormal events, but in your experience, what exactly are ghosts?
Kerriann Brosky: People may think there's a lady with a white face and a white dress, she has chains and blood, and she's coming to throw things, but [this is not true.] Actually, there are 10 different types of ghosts. This list was compiled by a famous ghost investigator in London, England, named Peter Underwood. He came up with this list based on his own research and I liked it so much that I included it [in my first ghost book], giving him credit, of course.
There are historical ghosts... figures that supposedly haunt old houses and places, and especially those with a strong historical background. [For instance,] William Sydney Mount, the famous Long Island painter, is definitely still around. He has come to my office on many occasions. I've never seen him, but in writing the books, things started happening when I wrote his story.
There are atmospheric ghosts... cyclic or recurring ghosts such as when people claim to see Abraham Lincoln's funeral train every year... family ghosts... poltergeists... ghosts of the recently dead who often visit to say that they are going off to heaven and to say goodbye. ... There are crisis apparitions... and objects such as dolls, clocks and rocking horses that can be haunted.... And there are animal ghosts.
Do you think that Long Island is more haunted than some other places?
I don't know that it's more haunted, but I can say that it's just as haunted as places like New Hope, Pennsylvania. Cold Spring Harbor is very haunted. We get calls about it several times a year.
And there are certain places on Long Island that may be more haunted than others. They tend to be on the North Shore of Long Island: the St. James area, Setauket, Strong's Neck, Huntington, Montauk... places like those tend to have more ghosts and they also have a lot of history.
