Love, Intrigue, and Oysters: Uncovering Hidden Family Secrets

In this episode of youtuber family trees, I trace the ancestry of Max Miller from @TastingHistory. Tracing from Max's grandmother Virginia James (Hultse), our genealogical research brought out some interesting stories about the family history, from the individual drinking cup company to oyster planters in 19th century Long Island to hidden secrets that we can only hypothesize about...for now!

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[infowarriorone]

IMO Max Miller's Tasting History is one of the best foodie channels on YT.

[LDF]

With twins it’s pretty rare to go full term. They may have just genuinely been premature - not a situation of pregnancy outside of marriage.

[jillparker]

Just came from Max's channel! This is exciting!

[Heydodoakskdkdjf]

sadly, she could have also given birth prematurely (common with twins) and one twin was weaker than the either. But you are right that we may never know for sure. Loss at the time was rarely an open topic.

[lisapop]

I just came from Max's video. This is interesting. I'd love to do my family. Me & my cousins found out that our paternal great grandfather changed the family name but nobody knows why. Our grandmother spoke Polish at home but insisted that we were NOT Polish but German. We were all confused when we did our Dna tests around the same time and there was zero German ancestry. Which is doubley weird because her first husband, our dad's father, was supposed to be German too! He even had a German name. My mom's mom's side gets stuck because of the name Smith.

[Fluffymonkeyem]

A crossover I didn't expect! But absolutely love. Sometimes it can be really hard to trace people and this was one of them. The oyster pirating bit was really interesting to me.

[Richard-zmpt]

I don't know if you will be able to share the DNA phase of the research, but I'd be really eager to see that if you can.

[edindoffer]

I have been working on my family tree for the passed four years and am glad I’m not the only one who ran into those issues! Genealogy is a fun rabbit hole to fall into ❤

[anna_in_aotearoa]

Being a genealogist really is like being a detective, isn't it!! Complete with some of the same digging up of unexpected secrets 🤯Loved your explanation of your research journey, and the interesting historical side notes (like the oyster pirates! 🏴‍☠️)

Max's genealogy is a great example of how basic demographic records like censuses can bring to light some pretty unexpected family stories...? And how much lateral thinking is needed to reconnect the gaps caused by records loss, war, scandal & just plain typographical errors or phonetic spellings!

[AngelavengerL]

Came over from Tasting History, this was super fascinating. You've got yourself a new subscriber.

[krcmaine]

❤Tasting History with Max Miller. What a mystery! I can't wait to see what you uncover.

[Chaotic_Pixie]

DANG! I'm invested. Love a good family mystery.

[kathyastrom]

Oh, the hidden family secrets, especially on my grandmother’s side! Her mother, my Great grandmother Alida, never talked about her family to her children at all. Somehow, my great aunt Dorothy did find out why and shared it in a letter to a cousin’s son that he has since posted on Ancestry decades after Dorothy passed. When Great Grandma Alida was 12, her mother died of appendicitis at just age 31. Her father tried to keep the family together, but gave up after a year, farmed his three eldest daughters out to his in-laws, put his only son Bill into a Chicago orphanage, and took the baby with him when he moved hundreds of miles away from the rest of his kids. It seems that all of those children resolved to forget everything about their family history because absolutely nothing was passed down to any of the descendants. I connected with Bill’s granddaughter through Wikitree, and she said her father told her that Bill took all of his family photos when he had his first house built and bricked them up behind the fireplace—he never wanted to see his father’s face again, understandably so, imo.

My Great Grandfather Jesse had a few stories to pass down, but just some vague details and one specific “fact” that my 6th great granduncle was Alexander Hamilton. (Turns out my research revealed that while I do have AN Alexander Hamilton in that spot, it’s not THE Hamilton. When I connected with a grandson of Jesse’s brother last month, I had to break that news to him, since that was the only story he had ever heard about his grandfather’s family. Bummed him right out.)

However, I did find out why Jesse might not have talked much else about his family. His mother, my 2nd great grandmother Carrie, walked out on her marriage when Jesse was just five. She took the girls with her, but had to leave the boys behind with her ex. It took her five years to get all four of her children back with her. She did (and paid) everything to do so, but I imagine a young Jesse just being really confused over why his mom was no longer with him. Then she went on to become a real independent woman with no interest in following society’s rules, which I can imagine that, if he even knew half of what his mom did in her 50s and 60s, Jesse was not interested in sharing with his impressionable daughters. (She spent the 1920s as a trance medium and Spiritualist pastor in Oklahoma City, and her third husband was a “divine healer.” She was arrested for illegal fortune telling and her appeal was reported in papers across the country, since she and her lawyer were trying to get the appellate court to rule on whether Spiritualism was a religion.)

[TheDanEdwards]

Did you look on Arkivverket for the guy in Arendal? I've discovered that many Norwegians who emigrated were tracked, from their home municipality, in the new land, for the purpose of local histories of the Norwegian community.

[alienonion]

You can thank Max for sending me and I thank you for a very interesting look into Max's family tree. Never did I think when searching for a recipe would I enjoy these little snippets of history.👍

[Henrique]

Two of my favourite channels making a collab? Great!!

[Dinki-Di]

What a stirling piece of research! Hope you will update us if DNA provides further clues. I'm here from Max's channel, but you've just gained another subscriber.

[harvestmoon_autumnsky]

Interesting, I have zero experience with serious genealogy. I did try to trace back my family history to the early 1900s at one point, but I think the issue you mentioned, of names getting tweaked, became my stumbling block. So interesting to see how much work goes into this process.

[phranerphamily]

Found you from Max Miller's link. Interesting content and I definitely subscribed

[Updation_Nest]

Wow, I came here from max’s channel and watched the newest video. I have been stuck on research from my family on my moms side. They came from the Azores, and had their name Americanized. I know of the islands they came from, but have met a wall for the last few years. My dad was adopted and we have been able to find his mother, but unable to find his father. The fathers side of the family seemed like a bunch of weirdos, so we didn’t pursue with contact. Also, cool thing we found out, twins run like crazy on my dads side.