Legacy Lore: True Crime & Ancestral Secrets from Colonial America

A new clue in Eleanor’s story has just surfaced.

In this short bonus episode, host Sammy Jo shares a recent AncestryDNA update that expanded her genetic map revealing new connections to Ireland.

What does this mean for Legacy Lore: The Accused? It opens an entirely new direction in the search for Eleanor Neale’s origins, and a chance to trace where her story truly began.

🎧 A quick update from the genealogical frontlines, ...

Every investigation reaches a point where the facts stop cooperating.

In Episode 4 , The Confession, host Sammy Jo steps out from behind the story to confront the contradictions inside her own research.

Was Eleanor Neale, the woman accused of witchcraft in 1671 Colonial Virginia, the same Eleanor listed years earlier on a transport ship from England? Or had history confused her with a noblewoman or even her own daughter-in-law?

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This bonus episode is a dramatized retelling of real events from the North Berwick witch trials of the 1500s.

While it’s based on historical records, some dialogue and perspectives have been fictionalized to help immerse you in the time period and emotional weight of the story. 

This episode also contains referenced to torture, executions, and the persecution of women - which may be distressing for some listeners.

We board a roy...

Long before Eleanor Neale faced judgment in Virginia, King James VI of Scotland had already written the rulebook on fear. In this episode, we travel back to the European witch hunts that inspired his Daemonologie and learn how those anxieties crossed the Atlantic.

Discover how royal superstition became colonial law and how one woman’s fate was sealed by centuries of inherited fear.

Sources used in this episode:

1. ​King James...

Land was wealth. Land was power. And for the Neale family, land may have been the spark that ignited accusation. This episode uncovers how property, privilege, and public record intertwined to shape Eleanor Neale’s life and her prosecution.

As we examine court documents and early Virginia land patents, we reveal how influence could protect some and condemn others.

Website & Sources: ⁠LegacyLorePod.com⁠

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Step back into 1671 Colonial Virginia and meet my 11th-great-grandmother, Eleanor Neale, a woman accused of witchcraft in a world wracked by superstition and power. In this premiere episode of Legacy Lore: The Accused, I bring together court records, land deeds and family lore to ask: Who was Eleanor? Why was she targeted? And what does her story mean for the generations that followed?

From her early life in the Virginia colony ...

Before accusations of witchcraft haunted my ancestor’s name, there was a world already primed to fear her. In this short prologue, host Sammy Jo Hinnant Saraceni introduces Legacy Lore: The Accused, a season-long exploration of one 17th-century woman’s trial in Colonial Virginia and the echoes it still leaves in our lives today.

We’ll trace how superstition, power, and gender shaped both Eleanor Neale’s fate and the modern paral...

Step into the world of Legacy Lore, a podcast that unearths true stories buried within one woman’s family tree.

Season 1 – The Accused follows the real 1671 witch-trial of Eleanor Neale, a woman whose legacy rippled through generations.

If you love true crime, genealogy, and forgotten history, this trailer gives you a glimpse of the stories—and secrets—to come.

Follow @legacylorepod on Instagram, and visit www.legacylorepo...