Legacy Lore
Legacy Lore is where history and memory meet.
A narrative history podcast rooted in genealogical and archival research, Legacy Lore draws from court records, family histories, and historical context to reconstruct the lives of real people whose stories have nearly been lost to time.
From one family tree emerges a broader examination of accusation, resilience, and survival. The host, Sammy Jo, places individual lives within the legal, social, and cultural forces that shaped them, and asking what these histories still reveal today.
Season One: The Accused is the story of Sammy Jo’s 11th great-grandmother who was accused of witchcraft in 1671.
Drawn from court records, land deeds, and surviving colonial documents, her case reveals how fear, rumor, and power operated within early legal systems. This is not a story of spells or sorcery, but of survival of a woman navigating accusation in a society that used fear and punishment to enforce silence and compliance.
Through Eleanor Neale’s case, Legacy Lore examines how ordinary lives were shaped by extraordinary pressures, and how these histories continue to echo in the present.