by Barbara Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper
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Transcript: Discovering Your Maine Heritage (Episode 95 (S5 E15) now with added Update)
Findley (vocal over images of trees, the Portland skyline, waves breaking on rocks): …You’re watching Channel 10, Portland’s own public television station.
Findley (a thin, elderly man with silver hair and a white beard and glasses, wearing slacks and a sweater and a blazer and loafers) (outside a large mansion, with a slight breeze blowing): I’m James Findley, and as always, I’m your host… for Discovering Your Maine Heritage.
Findley (vocal over sitting at a large wooden library table near a large window with a man in his late 30s, with brown hair and haunted eyes): I’m here today with David Collins, of Collinsport, Maine. We’re exploring David’s family history.
Findley: We’ve discovered many things, David. The first: your family history—in spite of your family vanity-publishing a whole book about it in the 1960s— is, ah, not very accurate.
Findley (reaching for the first document on top of a large stack of papers, books, and other documents): Let us start with the year 1795.
Findley (as he shows David various papers and documents): Millicent Collins, we discovered by looking into Massachusetts historical records—instead of never marrying, as the book of your family history states, she was actually married to one Nathan Forbes, a former Naval Lieutenant. He was already married when he proposed to Millicent, but his first wife died after some sort of attack before he married for the second time. There was no investigation, because of the influence of one Joshua Collins. Millicent Collins spent the rest of her life after Nathan Forbes’ death in a “home for the mentally infirm.”
Findley: Next, the family history claims that Josette Collins was married to Jeremiah Collins, but letters indicate that Josette was originally going to marry Barnabas Collins.
Findley: And to answer a question you asked us about– Barnabas did not go to England. There is no British branch of the Collins family, and hasn’t been since the 17th century.
David Collins: I knew it!
Findley: But the notes of one Dr. Dave Woodard seem to tie the Barnabas of 1795 to the Barnabas of 1967.
David Collins: Um, that’s… interesting… So, did Barnabas… 1795-Barnabas, I mean… go somewhere else, if not England?
Findley: Well, according to the files of one Dr. Julian Hoffman, blood specialist at Windcliff Sanitarium…
David Collins: Oh, that’s Julia. Dr. Julia Hoffman. The paperwork at Windcliff got her name wrong at first or something. We’ve all had a good laugh about that confusion…
Findley (eagerly): Are you still in touch with Dr. Hoffman?
David Collins: Ye—well, I mean, I guess not really, in recent years. She and Cous—she and her boyfriend… have been living abroad for some time now. As far as I know, they’re in the mountains of Tibet.
Findley (a little disappointed): …Well, her files show that the blood taken from one Margaret Evans….
David Collins: That’s Maggie, my former governess….
Findley: Had certain abnormalities… And there seem to be…We were given a copy of a notebook held for safe keeping by one Anthony Peterson… He made an extra copy, or something like that…
David Collins: He used to date my cousin Carolyn… uh… and also my stepmother, for a little while, I think… it’s… complicated.
Findley (doing his best to ignore these interruptions): According to the copied notebook, the Barnabas Collins of 1966 is, genetically, the same person as the Barnabas of 1795. Dr. Hoffman’s notes aren’t exactly clear about it, but at the time, based on what she wrote, she believed that your cousin was an immortal… something about the destructive nature of his blood.
David Collins: …Wow. I… did not know that. …Is there any part of the family history that’s true?
Findley: The sister of Barnabas Collins, in 1795, Sarah Collins, did die of a sudden illness in that year, after taking a chill… We checked the medical records from that time…
David Collins: Poor Sarah. She was a sweet girl.
Findley: …You sound like you knew her.
David Collins: …Long story, James.
Findley: In any event… the medical records of 1795 are rudimentary, to be sure, but there was some indication that after she was put in an asylum, Millicent Collins may have given birth to a baby boy. If indeed that’s correct… the infant was given to a local fishing family called the Haskells.
David Collins: Yikes. You’d better not let my cousin hear that. She used to date a Joe Haskell. …Um, I need a break. Can I have fifteen minutes?
Findley: Certainly.
(Screen cuts to an image of a rather old graveyard with tombstones [and a family mausoleum over on the right side] at dusk, with instrumental music [mostly horns and woodwinds], and fades slowly to black…
…and then fades back in on James Findley and David Collins sitting at the same table as before [although with a new stack of documents and old books next to Findley].)
Findley: …And we’re back, with more about the Maine heritage of our guest David Collins. You were curious about the relationship between the Stokes family and the Collins family, David…
David Collins: Yes. I dated Hallie Stokes for a while. I’d like to know that I didn’t date a relative…
Findley: No, you didn’t… However, her 18th-century ancestor Ben Stokes has an interesting history… A minor crime was given the maximum penalty, and he was an indentured servant on the Collins estate. Barnabas Collins taught Ben to write. Ben was given his freedom, but he chose to stay on the estate to help raise young Daniel Collins. Ben married another servant, maiden name Chavez, a native of Barbados, who came to live with Natalie DuPrés, who stayed on the Collins estate after Josette died.
David Collins: Chavez. Was her name Elizabeth? Like, as in Beth?
Findley: There is an Elizabeth Chavez in Maria Chavez’s family tree, but she came later, in the 19th century… we have no birth date for her… her date of death was 1897.
David Collins: Yes. She committed suicide after having an affair with one Quentin Collins.
Findley: Who goes almost entirely unmentioned in the official Family History.
David Collins: Yeah, well, he was “a cad and a bounder” in those days, so they wrote him out of the family history…
Findley: On that note, we… got ahold of the blood test of one Mr. Grant Douglas.
David Collins: That’s one of Quentin’s aliases.
Findley: We… wondered about that… The report on Mr. Douglas shows that he seemed to have a strange form of the disease Lupus in his system… But instead of an immune-system-destroying disease, it seems to have… well, mutated, perhaps. It seems dormant in Mr. Douglas… but then again, we’re not sure it was Lupus. It had many characteristics in common with distemper…
David Collins: Like in canines?
Findley: …You sound familiar with Mr. Douglas’ medical history.
David Collins: It’s a long story.
Findley: Anyway, DNA testing that we did proved that Grant Douglas was related not only to the Collins family, but also to a family named Jennings…
David Collins: I had a childhood friend named Jennings. Amy Jennings.
Findley: Apparently, there’s a hereditary gene that causes additional problems for people with this Lupus variant, or whatever it is. It’s recessive in females, but not for men. If you know how to contact your childhood friend, you may need to tell her to get her DNA tested.
Findley (reaching for a new stack of documents): And, speaking of which, it’s time to discuss the questions you had about your own parents…
David Collins: I need another break.
(Screen cuts to an image of a main street of a small town. A sign reading COLLINSPORT INN can be seen in front of one white-walled building, with instrumental music [mostly horns and woodwinds]. It fades slowly to black…
…and then fades back in on James Findley and David Collins sitting at the same table as before.)
Findley: Welcome back. We’re resuming Discovering Your Maine Heritage, with the heritage of David Collins.
David Collins: My cousin Carolyn and I wanted to know whether my first governess, Victoria Winters, was related to the Collins family… or perhaps to the Stoddard family.
Findley: The best answer we were able to find, David, was… there was no such person as Victoria Winters.
David Collins: …What? Of course, there was. I gave you the information—she came from a foundling home… My Aunt Elizabeth had the address in her records.
Findley: We contacted that foundling home, and they had no record of a Victoria Winters, and no one there now has ever heard of anyone by that name.
David Collins: But I… We remember her. Carolyn and I. Vicki was going to marry Burke Devlin, but then she married Jeff Clark… although his name might’ve really been Peter Bradford.
Findley: Yes, we did the best we could with the information that you gave us, but we found nothing about Jeff Clark, and the only Peter Bradford we’ve found was a lawyer from around 1795. We did find a Victoria Bradford, but she was hanged as a witch that same year.
David Collins: …Damn.
Findley: …Do you need a minute?
David Collins: …No. I want to know who my father is.
Findley: Yes, we checked that out. Genetically, your father is Roger Collins.
David Collins: …Well, damn.
David Collins: My mother was… she’d been very close, before I was born, with Burke Devlin, who died in a plane crash…
Findley: Yes, we investigated that South American plane crash. A silver filigreed pen was found that had belonged to Mr. Devlin, but the bodies were charred beyond recognition, and buried in South America.
David Collins: …So… there’s a chance that he may have faked his death, then…?
Findley: Mr. Collins… this investigation has taught me that literally anything is possible…
David Collins: What about the questions I had about my stepmother, Cassandra Blair?
Findley: There are no records of a Cassandra Blair, nor of her brother, Nicholas Blair, whom you described to us… However, we did find a woman matching the picture that our sketch artist drew of Cassandra Blair Collins based on your description, who matched it very closely—a woman named Angelique Rumson. She was a fashion model who married into a rich family, but she disappeared after her husband died under mysterious circumstances.
David Collins (sighs): It’s always mysterious circumstances.
Findley: That only leaves your mother.
David Collins: My mother was mentally ill.
Findley: Actually, records indicate that she died in a fire of unknown origin in a mental institution in Arizona.
David Collins: Well, yes, there was a fire in her apartment there, but she escaped.
Findley: Not according to what we found. There was some confusion when it happened—there was a theory that the dead woman found was actually a cleaning woman who worked there… but our forensic methods are rather more advanced than those of the time. That was your mother who died in Arizona.
David Collins: But—she showed up in Collinsport after that, to try and claim custody of me!
Findley (awkwardly): …Mr. Collins, I hate to break it to you, but your mother’s medical records had additional anomalies that bears further investigation.
David Collins: What sort of anomalies?
Findley: Your mother’s blood, it’s, well, it was… ancient.
David Collins: What?
Findley (even more uncomfortable): Well, apparently, she has, er… ties… to… Ancient Egypt.
David Collins: …Genetically, you mean? Like ancient ancestors?
Findley: Well, sort of… But also… the… the diseases in her blood. After researching your relatives Barnabas Collins and Quentin Collins, we were careful to find out anything we could about your mother’s medical tests as well, especially anything abut her blood. And… her blood, her cells, had similarities to the things that someone from three or four thousand years ago would have, including the ancient diseases… things that only people living on the banks of the Nile would have… like… ancient mummies that’ve been studied…
David Collins: Oh, this is too much!
Findley: I understand your reaction, but there are records in Cairo of one Laura Murdoch Stockbridge Collins dying in a fire… and then being seen alive again.
David Collins: What? No! But—it can’t be the same woman…
Findley (slides a new sheet of paper over to David): There’s a group of scientists in Egypt who wish to check your blood for—
David Collins: —I’m done. Just done. Thank you for—for everything you’ve worked to find out, but…
(David Collins gets up, walks away from table)
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(Screen cuts to: James Findley, in a television studio, wearing slightly different clothes, looking slightly older.)
Findley (looking into the camera): Hello, everyone. This week, it’s officially one year after our show that we did with Mr. David Collins. Many in our audience of viewers have asked us what happened Mr. Collins.
Findley: Honestly, we don’t know.
Findley: There seemed to have been a fatal fire at one Phoenix Institute in Cairo, Egypt. However, David Collins’ body, although he was listed as a patient there at the time, was not discovered.
Findley: We did, however, find a restaurateur and chocolatier in South America, by the name of David Devlin… who seems to bear a remarkable resemblance to David Collins.
Findley: We have… chosen not to attempt to reach out to him, nor to attempt to contact him.
Findley: Wherever David Collins is, we here at Channel 10… wish him the very best.