That may not be how it works, however. Jamison and Nora, and later David, were not necessarily the offspring of "The Phoenix," but rather a mortal woman named Laura. In each case (1897 and 1966), a mortal Laura dies in a fire and from the fiery ashes "The Phoenix" is reborn. We do not know whether the mortal Laura has any knowledge of the Phoenix prior to the actual Phoenix itself being reborn.
This would seem logical except for the fact that Laura seemed to be well aware of who Josette was and also considered her to be a threat, as if she knew all about Laura's past and what she was. Another reference to this would be that Laura was wearing the same locket around her neck that Josette was wearing in the Collins family history book. Also when Josette's ghost appeared to Laura at the cottage, Laura seemed to recognize her right away and knew who she was.
All this was changed of course when we ventured back into the 1795 storyline.
In the case of Laura Murdoch Collins (1966) she seemed to have a perfectly normal, human life up until her death by fire in a Phoenix apartment. She was even committed to a sanitarium - not something the immortal Phoenix would have been afflicted with.
I agree with you here, but sometimes wonder if that "Sanitarium" act was just a clever ploy on Laura's part just to have an excuse to get away from Roger and Collinwood.
If there is any genetic connection, one could suppose that if David died in a fire he could be reborn as a Phoenix from its fiery ashes, but the story line does not suggest this.
Laura was always trying to convince David to leave Collinwood and go away with her where they both could have "eternal life" so Im assuming that she meant that David would become the same as she.
What's more puzzling is that when Vicky, along with Frank Garner went to the old Tomb they discovered that there was yet another Laura Murdoch Radcliff whatever and was told by the old caretaker there that Laura and her young son David died by fire. The caretaker also said that young David had ran into his mothers arms and never once tried to escape, as if he wanted to die with her.
If this were to be the case, then David should have been able to "resurect" himself like she did and come back as a Phoenix. But of course she herself only comes back and this is what's puzzling to me.
It's almost as if a piece of the puzzle was never found. Supposidly a Phoenix is reborn every 100 years and since it was stated that Laura was once married to Jeremiah Collins, this would put the timeline at 1797, and since we know that Jeremiah was dead by that time, this couldn't be the case.
It is quite possible that Jeremiah married at a very young age as I remember Barnabas telling someone during the 1897 storyline that he was just a young boy when his Uncle Jeremiah was married to Laura.
It would have been interesting if the dates all matched and that the David to whom the old caretaker was referring to was actually Laura & Jeremiah's son.
