How the Search Began: From Rumors to Records
It all started with a whisper.
Not about witchcraft — not yet. Just a quiet family rumor that one of my great-grandfather might have been involved in smuggling whiskey. I was a senior in high school when I decided to chase that thread, signing up for a free trial on Ancestry, fully convinced I could uncover a buried secret and solve a family mystery.
At the time, I didn’t realize I’d be starting something much bigger.
To really understand how far things have come, you need to know — I grew up in an era where encyclopedias, physical books, and Ask Jeeves were our version of Google. If you needed answers, you flipped pages, not screens. By my senior year, the Internet did exist, but you had to dial in and hope no one picked up the phone and kicked you offline. (90s kids, you get it!)
That first research attempt didn’t yield much. So I stopped. But then I’d get curious again, go back to it, dig a little more, and put it back down when the leads dried up. This on-and-off rhythm continued until one day it finally stuck — and the connections began to form.
Ancestry has been my home base through all of it. It’s a fantastic tool — but only if you’re willing to dig deeper. Clicking every “hint” without verifying can send your tree spiraling in the wrong direction. Because not every tree out there is accurate, and not everyone using the site is a genealogist. People attached names, dates, and relationships based on guesswork or assumptions. You have to read the documents. You have to trace the lines yourself.
And so I began to wonder — what if we each complied accurate records for just one generation? If everyone documented the lives of their parents or grandparents, included memories and photos, and preserved those stories — how much easier would this all be? Instead, here I am in 2025, trying to piece together documents from the 1400s.
That’s not just hard — it’s sometimes impossible.
Many records were never digitized (and honestly thank you to all those people that have digitized records — you are a life saver). Others were lost in fires or floods. Some were never created in the first place because, frankly, no one thought the lives of women were worth documenting. That’s something you’ll see throughout the first season of this podcast and I learned that firsthand researching Eleanor Neale.
Her name was tangled in records with others. Her maiden name? That took years to uncover. I ended up flipping through colonial court books — literal transcriptions made by someone reading 1600s handwriting and typing out what they thought it said. Imagine trying to read a doctor’s prescription from 400 years ago. It’s like that.
But every time I found something real — something verifiable — I felt a spark. Not just because I was learning about my family, but because I was fighting to bring truth to the surface.
And that’s why I created Legacy Lore.
Because Eleanor’s story deserves to be told — and told right. She lived in a world where truth was often manipulated by those in power. Where women had few choices and even fewer protections. And yet, she left a mark.
Her story, like so many others, was almost lost. But not anymore.
If you’re curious to learn more, I’d love for you to join the Early Access List for Legacy Lore. You’ll receive the first two episodes before anyone else — for free — and you’ll also get bonus content and behind-the-scenes insight that won’t be shared anywhere else.
This is a limited-time offer, and it’s only for early access subscribers. So don’t wait.
Because sometimes the truth is buried deep. But when you finally find it — it’s powerful.
Want to hear the story before everyone else? Our Early Access List is still open — but not for long.
Subscribers will get the first two episodes of Legacy Lore: The Accused released early and ad-free, along with exclusive content you won’t find anywhere else. I mean come on guys — I am giving you a chance to get information that no one else will have.
Spots are limited, so don’t wait — sign up now! Click HERE to get on the list.
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