Barnabas would have had to be rechained in his coffin inn 1897 for the family to remember him in the present.

It must have taken place off camera...when his body disappears in the present, I believe his soul and body of the present were reunited as were his body and soul of 1897 were reunited and rechained in the coffin.  His 1969 body now in 1897 must have been severely weakened being comatose for 5 months and Angelique and Julia went about to help remedy the situation.

1897 was probably a much simpler story in the original timeline.  Quentin kills Jenny, Magda finds out and places the curse on him.  Quentin becomes a werewolf and he killed Beth.  Judith and Edward discover his secret and kill him in his room with a silver bullet.  He dies on the chair and they seal up the room and state he went to Paris to live to the public.

I think that originally, the characters killed off due to Barnabas' meddling with history were also killed in the original timeline at the same time, through other circumstances.  Laura still could have driven Dirk insane and he killed Rachael, Carl, and Pansy and was in turn shot to death by Edward as he tried to kill Judith.

If they couldn't have gotten Dennis Patrick, then the ghost of Josette would have been perfect to use!  She was always there in the beginning to help those in need.

Fortunately, this is only a subway ride for me.  From work, it is a three station ride.

Prior to 1795, the writers had written Barnabas into a corner, he was evil for all of the 1967 storyline and Julia helping him kill Dr. Woodard didn't make her look good either.  The other members of the cast were given lesss screen time and made extremely ignotant of all the events around them.  

1795 was 5 months long and enough time for viewers in those days to forget what happened before.  Ther were no VCRs, Soap Opera Digest, internet, etc.

I am sure DS wasn't the only soap that changed plots and histories back then.  They still do it today.

I am a friend of David's and he is not a troll!  I have been posting here as Joeytrom and Collins1796 so you can see I have never posted anything "trolllike".  Here is an example of what he refers to:
__________________________________________________________

There was a longtime DS fan/fest organizer who ran a Zine from 1985 to 1991.  He was good friends with a lot of the fest organizers until they started to torment him.

This is from the final issue of that zine #7 (January 1991):

Sadly there are a handful of people in fandom who do not want the EHS to continue.  This list is very short, but prestigious. I will not print their names but most of you know them without being told.  They are the people who dominate Dark Shadows fandom in a way no other fandom in America is dominated; who have a hand in virtually everything and seem determined to discredit or destroy anything they don't control.  They are the reason why half then prominent long time DS fans have dropped out of fandom, and why half of those who remain are bristling with bitter accusations.  They are the reason this magazine has taken so long to appear.

I have personally watched as members of this clique tried to stop us from securing interviews, disrupted an interview in progress and tried to bar us from convention space.  I have seen a letter to others on fandom warning to avoid associating with us and have listened for years as fans across the country advised me of false and malicious rumors being spread about the Sentinel's staff.

Quentins family also apparently killed him and left his body on the chair to rot away and sealed the room off.  That would get his ghost angry!

This theory does not take into account the 1897 as we will soon witness.

SPOILER...

What is interesting about the marriage of Edward and Laura is that the writers did not seem to know who Edward was to be married to when 1897 started. In the beginning of 1897, it is implied that Edward is married to Jenny and he had her locked away in the tower room due to her insanity and is trying to keep his children from knowing she is there.  She even tries to kill him in what appears to be revenge for her imprisonment.  

When Diana Millay was found to be available, they decided to have Edward be married to Laura instead and made Jenny Quentin's wife.