I've been watching some of the current shows on video, and found it mordantly amusing when Barnabas was actually scripted the line: "The past is forgotten. Only the present matters." That must have been the heraldic proclamation for DS writers.
According to Sam Hall in the interview he gave to Mr. Gross, Dan Curtis had a habit of dictating sudden changes in the storylines. It's my view that DC is to blame for a lot of the stuff that doesn't add up over time in the development of the more complicated, extended storylines. If you think the inconsistencies in the prelude to the 1897 storyline are bad, don't even try to curl your brain around how they set up 1840. Almost nothing matches what the characters learned in the setup storyline.
It does seem weird to have the cradle walled up in Quentin's room, though, since it was NEVER there during 1897.
Steve