What makes a person a truth seeker?
That is a really good question to ask yourself. For me, the definition of a truth seeker is someone who will leave no stone unturned to find the facts behind whatever subject matter they are investigating, be it a person or a place. They are also someone who will be unbiased in their quest for the facts.
"The Historian should be fearless and incorruptible; a man of independence, loving frankness and truth; one who, as the poet says, calls a fig a fig and a spade a spade. He should yield to neither hatred nor affection, but should be unsparing and unpitying. He should be neither shy nor deprecating, but an impartial judge, giving each side all it deserves but no more. He should know in his writings no country and no city; he should bow to no authority and acknowledge no king. He should never consider what this or that man will think, but should state the facts as they really are." --- Lucian (170 A.D.)
In the process of trying to uncover the facts, how then can someone fail to be a "truth seeker"? As Lucian pointed out, those who go into a project with a bias, or an agenda - those who plan on twisting the history to fit or follow their own narrative - those are obviously the exact opposite of a truth seeker. They might hide behind their shiny credentials or even have notoriety or connections to the rich and famous that gives them the appearance of credibility, but that means nothing when it comes down to brass tacks.
What matters is the sincerity of the research. Did you use your due diligence to search every possible lead and work tirelessly to seek out all the facts, or did you lazily make a conclusion based on a weak Google search? Trust me folks, sadly there are people out there who claim to be "historians" who literally get their research from other websites or blogs without actually doing the real research and seeking out the oldest possibly primary sources. This is another example of someone who isn't a real truth seeker.
Look, we all make mistakes from time to time, we are not infallible -- I know I am not perfect, but when we find out that our work has an error are we humble enough to rise to the occassion, fix the error and adjust our opinions based on those new facts that came to light? Your ability to do just that can determine whether or not you truly are sincere in your research as a historian.
So, now, I am going to share with you some real truth seekers that I have had the privilege to know, collaborate with on historical projects, and also people I am proud to call my friends. These people deserve to be recognized, so we are going to do that today!
Pam Kenyon
Pamela Sweet Kenyon-Cardin, as some of you know, was the last surviving Kenyon who had ties to the Arnold Farmhouse. Of all the people in all the world, she was the one that people should have reached out to for answers about her grandparent's home. Did they? Nope. Instead, the masses followed and soaked up every word spoken by those with overimaginative stories, fabricated tales and downright false history -- the ones who financially benefited from exploiting the house and the people who once were attached to it, or surrounding properties.
Pam wasn't about that. She was humble and kind, but also a very strong-willed New Englander who didn't take any guff from anyone, and had no problem stating what was on her mind if she felt you were in the wrong. With the same token, if you were honest and good to her, and showed her and her family respect, she would be the best friend you could imagine.
Pam grew up in Burrillville, and often spent time visiting her grandmother and grandfather, staying overnight at the farmhouse as a child, a teenager and yes, at times she spent time there even as an adult, until her grandfather sold the property to the Perrons in January of 1972 (yes, 1972! I have copies of the deed).
Pam was a founding member of the Burrillville Historical and Preservation Society, who spent many, many years scouring the old archives to research local history and her own family history on both sides, the Sweets, Remingtons, Arnolds and Kenyons. In her younger years, she and her cousin spent a lot of time learning to become genealogists, and traveling all over Rhode Island and into Massachusetts just to follow a lead on her family history. She believed in the preservation of local history so much that she even donated property to the historical society to sell so they could raise money for their own needs. Besides property, she donated a multitude of her own research, items belonging to her family and other records before she left Rhode Island venturing off out of state.
Pam and I connected after I had debunked the false and slanderous story surrounding Bathsheba Sherman who was erroneously tied to the history of the property. She was instrumental at inspiring me to continue my path with further research on the history of her ancestral home, and she provided me with a lot of her own personal and family research in order to enlighten the world with the truth about the property. Pam is the ultimate truth seeker -- and it didn't hurt that she was seeking the truth about her own history. Sadly, she passed away on December 23, 2023, but the mark she left on the town of Burrillville will remain forever.
Kent Spottswood
Kent grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, but ended up in Woonsocket when he pursued journalism for the local newspaper. He eventually became the copy editor and remained there for over 20 years.
Kent was one of those types of guys full of talents, from writing to music, photography to his interests in history and local folklore. He did it all. He often found himself adventuring through the backwoods of Rhode Island, seeking out old cemeteries and stories long forgotten.
During his lifetime he spent a great amount of his time researching every library and archive in the state of Rhode Island searching for anything that would prove or disprove the alleged backstory of Bathsheba Sherman. Determined to find out the truth about her life, his efforts did not disappoint, as he was the very first person to prove that she was not a witch, not a devil worshipper, she didn't kill any babies (or anyone else for that matter) and that she didn't commit suicide at the farmhouse. Heck, he even proved she didn't live at the property either.
With all the stories swirling around Burrillville -- created by Carolyn Perron, Lorraine Warren and later on continued by Andrea Perron, it was Kent who initially shined the beacon of light over Bathsheba's tattered and torn gravesite, exposing the truth -- that she wasn't the villain in the story, but instead was an innocent victim. Everyone owes a huge debt of gratitude to Kent Spottswood for being the very first truth seeker on this subject, someone who sought me out after he noticed that I was also researching and digging for the facts, and someone who ultimately became not only a fellow collaborator but a friend. Kent passed away on April 18, 2020, and the world lost one of its great truth seekers.
Shannon Bradley Byers
Norma Sutcliffe
Norma is a truth seeker in her own right, being one of the former owners of the farmhouse. Did you know that she lived in the house over 30 years without any sort of negative paranormal experience? In fact, her longstanding residency at the property is the longest amount of time for any of the later owners of the house, besides the original family who owned it for over 200 years. Norma purchased the property with her husband, Gerry in the late 1980's and she remained there until reluctantly selling her dream home in 2019.
During her time living in the house, she loved to hear any sort of history about the home from whomever had stories, one of those persons claiming to be "in the know" was Andrea Perron. Andrea told Norma all sorts of stories about the house and at the time Norma didn't think to question the history, as she believed Andrea probably had done some research on the house. Unfortunately, that was not the case. After a while though, Norma, being of more of a scientific and rational thinker felt that Andrea and Carolyn's tales just continued to spiral, growing larger and larger as the years went on, and so Norma decided to try to find out the truth about the house on her own.
People like to give Norma a hard time because she allowed Ghost Hunters to her house to investigate. If you watch the episode you would see that they really didn't have any remarkable events take place during their investigation, which didn't surprise Norma at all. She only allowed the crew to come out because she thought that if she had finally publicly allowed people to come out to the house she could finally put the whole nonsense to bed once and for all.
You can love her or hate her -- but the one thing you cannot say about Norma is that she isn't a truth seeker - in fact, she was willing to confront Andrea Perron at the annual paranormal convention with Kent Spottswood in front of the entire audience while Andrea was on stage. Norma stated that Andrea threw a tantrum and ran off stage upset. The audience acted like a crazed mob and Norma and Kent had to leave abruptly. Even in the face of possibly assault from irrational zealots, Norma was willing to go the extra mile to expose the lies and shine a light on the truth. Yes, Norma is a truth seeker.
Elise Giammarco Carlson
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Elise is the one who might go to an event and stands in the background, quietly observing her surroundings, getting a feel for the vibe of the crowd. She doesn't insist on the spotlight, she doesn't want to jump in front of the camera -- although she often should. She is an amazing researcher local to the Rhode Island area and one who I am proud to call my friend and colleague. She is constantly at the historical society or a library or an archive, searching, endlessly and tirelessly searching to solve a local mystery -- to uncover a forgotten story or just to satisfy her curiosity. She keeps an open mind to a point, but is often more of the skeptical nature - using rational thought as a compass to see through the muddied waters of the paranormal community. She doesn't get the credit she definitely deserves, so I am fixing that right now. Elise is definitely one of the good ones, a truth seeker if ever there was one.
An absolutely tenacious researcher with a heart of gold, Stevi is one of my favorite people who I absolutely adore!! Not afraid to ruffle any feathers, she dives deep, taking on stories of the paranormal -- debunking story after story, most of the time related in one way or another to the Warrens, but she also takes on other stories as well. Stevi's knack for research is by far one of the best I have seen, always uncovering tidbits of history, revealing and exposing false narratives, resurrecting old interviews with the original journalists to cover various tales such as the original Annabelle doll story -- Stevi goes above and beyond what the average researcher will do for a story. She doesn't do it for fortune or fame, solely because she wants the world to know the truth and to expose the liars. For that I say that Stevi is probably the most geniune truth seeker on Youtube and Spotify and if you don't listen or watch her podcast, you should.
Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/@truthordemonspodcast
Kenneth Hillyard 
Kenneth, a retired archaelogist and author, is someone whom I have become friends within the last year or so, who also turned out to become a great colleague and fellow collaborator.
His interests in journalism took him halfway across the world, writing about music, politics and history. Interestingly, he reached out to me after reading my blog and as it turned out, he was also researching and writing about this very subject. Over time we began to collaborate and share our research with one another, and I personally feel that was instrumental to uncovering missing pieces of the puzzle.
Kenneth's research is impeccable and his ability to read and transcribe these old colonial time deeds is almost like a superpower! Although we both are seeking the real story backed up by documented facts surrounding the history at the farmhouse property, both of us approach the subject in a different way, so I am very much looking forward to seeing how his project turns out. To be quite honest, there is a lot of the earlier history in the form of deeds going back to the 1700's in the area that is just very complicated -- to put it mildly, and at times can be difficult to decipher. I would never have been able to locate much of those really old deeds had it not been for his help. I am a believer in giving credit where credit is due, and for this I thank Kenneth for his help and for being another truth seeker.
Kenny Biddle 
Kenny Biddle is a former ghost hunter turned skeptic, who still keeps an open mind as he investigates the extraordinary. From analyzing objects, gadgets used during paranormal investigating, watching alleged videos of the paranormal and even investigating at locations such as the Arnold farmhouse, the Monroe House, the Bellaire House and many other places, Kenny goes into each investigation seeking a rational explanation for everything first, before jumping to any conclusions. When he first wrote his paper about the house for the Skeptical Inquirer in 2019, I was happy that he took on the task to research the claims about the house, as at the time Ghost Adventures had just done a terrible episode on the subject. Kenny always does a great job tearing apart anything related to Zak Bagans. In turn, his article reached a wider audience and helped share the truth even further, which was our ultimate goal. Getting the facts out there. I have always appreciated him coming to my aid when I asked him to take on this subject and for that he is on my list of fellow truth seekers. Thank you Kenny!
To read more of his work please click here: https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/kenny-biddle/
Christopher Herlihy 
Calling him a young up-and-coming historian is an understatement. When I first communicated with young Christopher, I thought I was reaching out to an adult or maybe even college student on Find-a-grave to ask for permissions to use a few of his photos he contributed to the site. As I searched the different cemeteries throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts I found one thing, that this person known as the "Conjuring Kid" had taken photos at every grave I was looking for. Once I finally got in contact with him via Find-a-grave to request to use those photos in my book, I was shocked when I learned that he is 15 years old, and still in school.
In his spare time he will roam cemetery after cemetery searching for and photographing and cataloguing the graves in the area, with his particular interest in the Arnold and Richardson families. He visits the libraries and archives regularly seeking out the old death and birth ledgers, deed ledgers, and every town record he can get his hands on that will shed light on the Arnold family's life at that house. His sincerity and determination to find the facts is to be commended. He is definitely getting an early start in the field of history and I hope that he carries that with him into the future. If that isn't a truth seeker, then I do not know what is. Keep up the great work!
Conclusion
In ending this piece, I hope that you have enjoyed taking a peek into the backgrounds of these people whom I greatly admire and respect. Each one of these people listed above put the facts first, not their feelings, not agendas, not biases. They work tirelessly to seek out and find the answers to their questions in whatever subjects they are researching. Something that all writers and historians alike should strive to do always.
(Copyright 2026- J'aime Rubio www.jaimerubiowriter.com)
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