Ep 8 - This just in - from 1934

The gift that keeps on giving - Carl's hoard of papers keeps providing glimpses into the life of our grandmother and life in the 1930s.  Just when you think you understand the sitch, you don't.
The cracker jacks box keeps doling out a prize, lol.

Transcript

Kim: 0:18

Hello everybody and welcome back to Chasing Hazel's Tales, a family history podcast. We talk family history, dna, and anything else that comes across the desk. I'm Kim McLaughlin.

Laura: 0:30

And I'm Laura Ireland.

Kim: 0:32

We have a bit of news and we are gonna update you on our plan. So first things first. If you remember, Hazel is our grandmother and she had a relationship with Gerald Humphrey, who was not our known grandfather at the time, from Gray, Maine. That produced our dad. None of this was known to us until just recently, but because of Hazel's brother Carl, he kept every piece of paper he put his hands on ever in his life. we have a mountain of paperwork that we continually go through, and it's an ongoing event. Sometimes I'll just say, huh, I wonder what, and I'll pull a piece of paper out and well, that's what, that's how we got to today. And so what we continually go through it and we call it the gift that keeps on giving. For sure. And giving. And giving, right? Yeah,

Laura: 1:18

so previously we had shared proof in the form of letters that Carl and his fiance Hattie had known about the relationship with Gerald and Hazel. And we had tidbits of proof that everyone else knew about this as well. It just seems that everyone knew except us. Maybe the Humphreys in Gray. We are still discovering, who knew what and all of that kind of thing. So we just so happened to find a little booklet. I think Kim found this one. Hattie kept. Honeymoon diary or honeymoon.

Kim: 1:54

Yeah, it was a honeymoon booklet. Kind of like a baby book. When you get a baby book, you write down all the details of what was going on in your life when you had a baby. Mm-hmm. Well, this was the same thing except this is what we did for our marriage. You know, all the people that were there and all the people that party, or the gifts and that kind of stuff, and where they want on their honeymoon.

Laura: 2:12

And wouldn't you know, The, when she starts to write down the information about the honeymoon, so they were married on September 8th, 1934, and it starts off saying that the honeymoon started on September 9th and their first stop was drum roll please. Dun dun, dun Gray, Maine.. Wait a minute. That sounds very familiar.

Kim: 2:42

As I say, hold the phone. Who,

Laura: 2:45

who do we know that lived in Gray at that time, right? Bingo. Gerald Humphrey. So Hattie goes on to say that they stayed two days with some very dear friends, Mr. And Mrs. Gerald Humphrey. And what

Kim: 3:03

Yeah,

Laura: 3:04

like, so this was 1934, September of 1934, and this was a time that we knew that Hazel and Gerald had the ongoing relationship, at least part because Hazel was early in the pregnancy with our father at that point.

Kim: 3:19

Right About two months. To be two months pregnant. Maybe she knew she was pregnant, maybe she didn't. I don't know. Come

Laura: 3:26

on. You know, I, I understand they were friends with him, but I just find this, awkward, awkward, mind blowing. I'm not really sure what, but you know, this whole thing just kind of stopped me in my tracks and. I have to admit that for some weird reason, my reaction is anger

Kim: 3:47

Yeah. She was angry people. She was pretty, she was pretty cross I'm, I'm

Laura: 3:51

laughing and I'm angry, but you know. It seems so obvious. Carl and Hattie had to have known all the details. they knew they were having a relationship. Hazel became pregnant, so they clearly knew all their lives

Kim: 4:06

that Right. And, and because in 1934, this relationship had been going on for a while now. Yeah. We're talking years, you know. Right. A couple, two or three at least.

Laura: 4:17

You know, and I know that times were different, and I think most families tried to hide any secret that might suggest anyone lived anything other than a perfectly moral life or, almost like Victorian type thing. Right. You know, so I, but as they say, it is what it is. I could, I can't help my reaction to it. But you know how they couldn't possibly know that all these years later that secret would be brought right out into the open with all of this ancestry DNA stuff. Right. So I guess they thought if they ignored it and they didn't talk about it, that it would go away.

Kim: 4:56

But, so my question is what was talk like at the dinner table? So, you know, we're on our honeymoon. It's Carl and Hattie on their honeymoon, they stop with friends, Carl and

Laura: 5:08

Hatty. It's Mr. And Mrs. Humphrey, right? I mean, it's not just Mr. Humphrey,

Kim: 5:13

right? They have a dinner with the

Laura: 5:14

family. They sit there and pretend that he's not having a relationship with his sister, with Carl's sister. I don't know. Anyway, I just find it odd, so

Kim: 5:24

I'm finding it very odd. What is the possible explanation? And I think probably maybe it was the friendship between Carl and Gerald that maybe produced the relationship, you know, with his, with Carl's sister, right. I mean, so that could totally be, I think they were probably friends first. They were railroad, employees or, the whole family was in the railroad. So to me it seems. That's what probably how Hazel came to know, Gerald, but that, but now to go to their house and maybe they were invited by Mrs. Humphrey and they just couldn't refuse. You know, they can't, then what would they say? Well, right, and

Laura: 6:04

it, it's hard because we're. Only looking at this through a certain perspective, right. Of the, you know, we don't, we don't know the whole story.

Kim: 6:12

Right. in the 2020s to talk a little differently about life happenings and relationships than they did probably in 1930. Yes. But still that was awkward. That was our awkward find for the week. Mm-hmm. And we still have kind of just going, huh, you know, That is really, really strange, but, and we just, here we go. We're gonna, you know, every time I pull out a piece of paper, now it's like I want to go, I'm gonna spend the rest of my time in December, probably going through all those papers again, thinking, what am I missing? There's probably more, more to the stories than we know.

Laura: 6:48

Right. And you might pick up little tidbits. That maybe in things that we looked at before, right. That might apply to this situation and we might see it in a new light and it might bring in little more information to the table, right?

Kim: 7:04

But this was a weird shock. This This

Laura: 7:08

was

Kim: 7:08

surprising. Yeah, surprising. I didn't know that that was the deal. So we thought we had to bring it to you right away, cuz we just found it yesterday. So just happened to be recording today. So what we're gonna do, I think going forward in December, what we'd like to do is, We're gonna take a little break unless of course we come up with all kinds of things in Carl's hoard. Yes. Then, we're gonna take a break until January. In January, we're gonna start out again with a really, really great story of, an Italian immigrant and how things got on here in the United States when he got here, and how a hundred years later we're still celebrating his life.

Laura: 7:48

That's gonna be a really good story. Can't wait to dig

Kim: 7:51

into that one. And, we, I don't know, I think some people did dna but we didn't need it. But still, right. The story and the discoveries are really, really great.

Laura: 8:00

And reconnecting. Exactly.

Kim: 8:02

Exactly.

Laura: 8:03

Should we tell people to give their family members ancestry, DNA gifts,

Kim: 8:08

Yeah. So for Christmas this year, why not give the gift that keeps on giving, which is the ancestry dna. if anybody wants any any information you know, it's a great way to know, specifically if you have Irish, Italian You, you might even have some Jewish, like I didn't, we've seen specs of Jewish in our ancestry before and I don't have any knowledge of that, but I would like to know where would that be? Where would it, would I have had some Jewish ancestry? Because I'd like to know. So I hope everybody, if they get an opportunity, take a test. If they, like we, I, I did ancestry, but there's many of them. And they're all, they're all worthy. They all have a good aspect

Laura: 8:42

to. Right and you, it's almost like cracker Jacks. There might be a surprise in the box.

Kim: 8:46

Yeah so So anyway, we're gonna continue on reading, seeing what Hattie and Carl have gotten up to and what they've, what they've talked about and or where they went and who they visited. But if we find anything interesting, we're gonna let you know. January 11th. will be our next podcast. Until then, look for us, you never know. We might pop up with something fun, but our plan is to take a break and prepare and enjoy the Christmas holiday.

Laura: 9:10

Hope you all have a happy holiday, and we'll see you in the new year.

Kim: 9:14

Take care. Bye-bye. Bye.