My great-grandfather (Welsh, mother's side) was a "water witch", but called himself a "diviner", as many do.

I would bet that a survey of water witches would reveal that "diviner" is the current "politically correct" term. :)

The farmers for whom he found wells probably didn't care whether it was magic or science. His skill at finding wells was not questioned- perhaps the whole bit with the forked branch of a fruit tree was a way of "explaining" a natural gift or a scheme for hiding skill and knowledge, who knows?

He never charged for his work- I believe this is traditional for "the real thing", whatever the scientific explanation for the ability may be. As I type this, my wife says in her country it is taken for granted that a water witch (bajalicar) doesn't charge, and dowsing is accepted as a normal thing. "Bajalica" in Slovene is a forked branch-
perhaps if a water witch was called a "brancher" in English, he'd have less trouble in these modern cynical times. Then again, that might limit his ability to finding branch water, which any whiskey-drinking cowboy can do fine all by their lonesome. :)

At any rate, if "anagramancy" isn't a "real" word, it should be! What's the widely practiced dark art of reading the future in a bottle of hooch? Alchomancy?

And hi, this is my first post, this is a wonderful forum!

-CB