The Bennett Family

Our family fled Salem in 1692 and relocated here. Our ancestors lived in secrecy for over a hundred years. It's important that we still do.

-Sheila explains to Bonnie the history of their family in *Haunted*

The **Bennett Family** *(**Latin:** Benedictus; **English:** Benedict; translates as "blessed" or "one who is blessed")* is one of the main families in *The Vampire Diaries* and a matriarchal bloodline of powerful witches. The family originated from Ancient Greece, then eventually settled in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. However, after the witch trials began, the family relocated in Mystic Falls in 1692. They have lived in the town and maintained their secrecy of their magical talents for over one hundred years. The Bennett family is known to be dominated by women. The Bennett family has been linked to both the **Salvatore** and **Petrova families** since 1st Century B.C., with Qetsiyah as the oldest known ancestor. The Bennett family is also descended from a Traveler bloodline, as Qetsiyah was known for being the most powerful and gifted member of the Traveler community. Sheila Bennett, Bonnie Bennett-Mikaelson, and Sheila Mikaelson are the last known members

* **Qetsiyah:** Qetsiyah was born sometime during 1st century B.C.E. in Ancient Greece. She is the oldest known ancestor of the Bennett bloodline and was "one of the most powerful witches of all time". Over 2,000 years ago, Qetsiyah fell deeply in love with a young, gifted, powerful witch named Silas. Qetsiyah and Silas belonged to a group of gifted people called the Travelers and were eventually to be wed. Silas confessed a desire to be immortal to her and insisted that he wanted to spend eternity with her. So out of her love for him, she created the first spell for immortality. However, Silas tricked her and gave the elixir to his true love, Amara. Betrayed, Qetsiyah tracked Silas down and devised her revenge; Qetsiyah created the cure for immortality, desiccated and entombed Amara, making her the Anchor to the Other Side and confronted Silas. After Silas refused her cure, she desiccated and entombed him on an island off of modern-day Nova Scotia with the cure, giving him two options. He could either take the cure and die a mortal death or he could starve and petrify in the tomb for eternity. Many centuries passed and Silas still refused to take the cure. In 2011, Qetsiyah took advantage of her descendant, Bonnie, bringing down the Veil to the Other Side and brought herself back to life so she could finally finish her mission to punish Silas for his crimes against her by killing him and finally ensuring that Silas and Amara would be separated for eternity. She finally achieved her wish some months later when Amara killed herself and crossed over to the human afterlife just before Stefan killed Silas and sent him to the Other Side. Content with having fulfilled her revenge against her ex-lover, trapping him on the Other Side, Qetsiyah killed herself. With her vengeance fulfilled, it is believed that she finally found peace.
* **Qetsiyah's Child or Children:** It's assumed that for the Bennett bloodline to have continued, Qetsiyah either must have had a child or children before she was killed by the Travelers.
* **Ayana:** Ayana was an ancestor of the Bennett bloodline who lived during the late 10th and early 11th century in the Middle Ages. She was a close friend of the Original witch, Esther Mikaelson, and acted as a healer for the people in her village in what became modern-day Mystic Falls. She is a descendant of Qetsiyah.
* **Ayana's Child or Children:** For the Bennett bloodline to continue, it is assumed that Ayana had a child or children of her own.
* **The Witch of The Five:** The unnamed Bennett witch better known by her title, Witch of the Five, was a descendant of Qetsiyah that lived in the 11th to early 12th century. In 1110 A.D., she created the Brotherhood of the Five. Qetsiyah had called upon her as her descendant to create a group of supernaturally-enhanced hunters who would be tasked with the mission of finding, curing, and killing Silas in his tomb on the island. The Five were also tasked with killing regular vampires while they attempted to locate Silas. She died approximately 100 years after Ayana warned Esther about the consequences of her vampirism spell. In *Into the Wild*, Atticus Shane regales the story of Qetsiyah, Silas, and the hunters, stating that [Qetsiyah's] *descendants* created the hunters, implying that she had siblings or a family of her own.
* **Beatrice's Mother**: Not much is known about Beatrice's mother other than she was the leader of the Bennett Coven in the mid to late 18th century. She along with the coven spelled the Maxwell Bell in an attempt to drive out the sirens. It remains to be seen if she perished along with the rest of the coven. She is a distant descendant of Qetsiyah.
* **Beatrice Bennett**: Beatrice was a powerful witch who lived during the late 18th to early 19th century and was a member of a coven of Bennett witches. She is a distant descendant of Qetsiyah. Given that she was alive during the late 18th century, she's either Emily's mother or grandmother, though this distinction remains to be seen.
* **Emily Bennett:** Emily was a fourth-great grandmother of Bonnie through Sheila Bennett, who lived up until the time of the American Civil War in the early 19th century. According to Sheila, she was "one of the most powerful witches" of the Bennett family. Emily was also the personal handmaiden of Katherine Pierce, who once saved her life. She made the daylight rings that protected Stefan and Damon from dying in sunlight. After the Founder's Council rounded up the vampires in Mystic Falls in 1864, Damon came to her and made a deal with her. In exchange for saving Katherine, Emily made him promise that her lineage would survive. She knew that her time was short too, as Katherine had exposed her to the council, and she was rounded up and burned at the stake. Keeping his word, Damon saved her children and protected her lineage.
* **Emily's Unnamed Brother:** Emily mentions to Stefan that she had a brother in *Blood Brothers*. Emily states that he had helped her bring the Salvatore brothers' dead bodies to the quarry to rest there until they reawakened transition. Not else is known about him, though it can be assumed that he was also a witch like his sister. He is a distant descendant of Qetsiyah.
* **Emily's Unnamed Children:** Emily had children of her own, though the number of or their names remain unknown. Damon had protected her children as well as their lineage over the decades in exchange for Emily protecting Katherine and the tomb vampires. It can be assumed that they were all witches and were descendants of Qetsiyah.
* **Unnamed Bennett Witch:** The unnamed Bennett witch was an ancient descendant of Qetsiyah and ancestor to Bonnie. Nothing is known about her or her background apart from that the Necromancer temporarily raised her from the dead to help him send the supernatural knife back to Malivore. He claimed that, in the cemetery in Mystic Falls, there are a lot of buried Bennett witches that excelled in the art of mystical transportation. Her power proved true, as she was able to effortlessly send the knife away, quickly and without incident. With her task complete, the Necromancer released her spirit.
* **Marie Bennett:** Marie was presumably a witch and a descendant of Qetsiyah. Nothing is known about her though her tombstone was seen in the Bennett graveyard in *Home*. It reads "In Memory of Marie Bennett. Beloved Mother and Daughter. April 15th, 1880 to ... 19th 1941". Given her date of birth, Marie could be one of Emily's child or grandchild, though this distinction remains to be seen.
* **Rose Bennett:** Rose was an ancestor of the Bennett family and of Bonnie Bennett. Nothing is known about her character or background. It is assumed that she was a witch. She is a distant descendant of Qetsiyah. It is unknown as to what point in time she belongs in the Bennett bloodline.
* **Ernestine Bennett:** Ernestine was an ancestor of the Bennett family. Nothing is known about her and it is assumed that she was a witch and a distant descendant of Qetsiyah. Her tombstone was seen in the Bennett graveyard in *Home* and it reads "Sacred. The Memory of Ernestine Bennett. Rest in Peace". It is unknown as to what point in time she belongs in the Bennett bloodline.
* **Amelia Bennett:** Amelia is Sheila's mother, the maternal grandmother of Abby, and the great-grandmother of Bonnie. She also has another unnamed son or daughter that would give her the great-great-great-granddaughter, Lucy. Her tombstone was seen in the Bennett graveyard in *Home* and it reads "Amelia Bennett. She was well esteemed and loyal to all who knew her".
* **Sheila Bennett** is the daughter of Amelia Bennett, the maternal grand-mother of Bonnie Bennett-Mikaelson, the maternal great-grand-mother of Sheila Mikaelson, and the mother of Abby Abby Bennett, and a distant descendant of Qetsiyah. Sheila turned out to be a descendant of a long line of women suspected of being powerful witches, and she taught Occult Studies at Whitmore College. In *Fool Me Once*, she and Bonnie performed a spell to open the door to the vampire tomb, although unbeknownst to Bonnie, the spell didn't unseal the tomb as she thought. Upon learning of what Sheila had done, Bonnie convinced her to help her open it to get Stefan and Damon out, and the amount of magic required to perform the spell weakened Sheila so much she almost died if her grand-daughter hadn't made her rest.
	+ **Sheila's Unnamed Sibling:** Sheila's sibling is the maternal grand-aunt or uncle of Bonnie and assumed that they are a witch like Sheila. Nothing is known about them apart from the fact that they had at least two children, Pauline, and an unnamed child. They are a distant descendant of Qetsiyah.
	+ **Pauline Bennett:** Pauline is presumably a witch and the descendant of Emily Bennett. She was the daughter of Sheila's unnamed sibling, the niece of Sheila, cousin of Abby, aunt of Bonnie, first cousin twice removed of Joanna, and first-cousin three times removed of Lucy. She is also a distant descendant of Qetsiyah.
	+ **Joanna Bennett:** Joanna is presumably a witch and is Lucy's mother. She's also the first cousin twice removed of Pauline and Sheila's niece. She is a distant descendant of Qetsiyah.
	+ **Abby Bennett Wilson:** Abby is the daughter of Sheila and the mother of Bonnie. She was born on August 16, 1972. She was married to Rudy Hopkins, Bonnie's father. She also has an adoptive son, named Jamie, who was the step-son of a man she dated for some time after moving to North Carolina. Her reasons for abandoning Bonnie were because of her then best friend Miranda Gilbert, Elena's adoptive mother. When Elena was a child, Mikael came to Mystic Falls in search of the doppelgänger as he knew his step-son Klaus was in search of her to break his curse if he ever learned of her existence. Abby lured Mikael to Pickett Mausoleum in North Carolina and cast a powerful desiccation spell on him that nearly killed her. In *All My Children*, Abby was turned into a vampire by Damon and, as a result, lost her connection to Nature and lost her magic as a witch. She is a very distant descendant of Qetsiyah she ended up dying by the hands of an unknown person.
	+ **Lucy Bennett:** Lucy is Bonnie's distant maternal cousin, specifically her third cousin twice removed, and is also a witch. She is the daughter of Joanna and therefore is related to Sheila through her unnamed sibling. She helped Katherine Pierce as a friend to get the Moonstone in *Masquerade* because she owed her a favor for previously saving her life. However, when Lucy learned that Katherine had purposely hidden the fact that a fellow Bennett witch, e.g. Bonnie, was involved, she ended up switching sides by removing the linking spell that connected Katherine to Elena and hexing the moonstone so that it would incapacitate Katherine when she touched it. Not wanting to get sucked into more vampire drama, she left Mystic Falls but promised Bonnie she would be back. In *I Alone*, she provided a vial of her blood to help rescue Bonnie from the 1994 Prison World. As of *One Way or Another*, it was assumed that she was in hiding from the Armory, though Alexandria St. John revealed that her sister Virginia killed her.
	+ **Bonnie Bennett-Mikaelson** Bonnie was born on February 5, 1993 in Mystic Falls, Virginia. She is the only daughter of Rudy Hopkins and Abby Bennett, the mother of Sheila Mikaelson She is also extremely compassionate, kind, empathetic, caring, friendly, and protective, especially of those she loves. Bonnie is also known to be a martyr; extremely self-sacrificing and selfless and she is always willing to put the needs of her family, friends, and loved ones before herself. She will always go out of her way to protect the people she loves and help others in need without asking for anything in return. Bonnie is also shown to be a romantic, someone who finds comfort in love and romance, although at first, she is more focused on her identity as a witch and protecting her friends. Because of Bonnie's opinions about vampires and their way of living (since vampires have to feed on humans and human blood for survival, thus increasing their chances of harming innocent people), this often makes her look like a prejudiced and judgmental person from time to time. However, Bonnie eventually comes to accept vampires and vampirism and even helps them and befriends them (as both her best friends Elena and Caroline are vampires), even though vampires and witches are known to be natural enemies. She once had the power of a hundred dead witches whom she asked for to defeat Klaus, but the privilege of drawing on this power was eventually taken from her when she brought Jeremy back to life and, in doing so, upset the balance of Nature. She is Emily Bennett's descendant but does not seem to be on good terms with the dead witch spirits, as she failed to heed their warning regarding abusing their power. She temporarily lost her magical powers after she died and was returned to the living world as The Anchor to the Other Side, but has since regained her powers while living in the 1994 Prison World. As of mid-2013, Bonnie has returned to the living world and has settled back into her life in Mystic Falls.
	+ Sheila Mikaelson Bonnie was born on June 12th, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana she is the only daughter of Bonnie Bennett-Mikaelson and Kol Mikaelson the maternal grand-daughter of Abby Bennett and Ruby Hopkins the paternal grand-daughter of Esther Mikaelson-Ross and Mikael Mikaelson the step-paternal-grand-daughter of Ansel Ross the maternal great-grand-daughter of Sheila Bennett she is extremely compassionate, kind, empathetic, caring, friendly, and protective, especially of those she loves but not a marty like her mother she will try everything but not at the risk of losing people she loves she is kinda like her father sneaky, and snarky.