Maybe your food was secretly fermented and you just didn't know about it? Aside from silly theories, that's pretty interesting family history. What the story behind the "horse-theiving fiddler"? My family has their fair share of tales but I can't help but wonder if some of them were embellished a little bit. Especially the tale of the distant relative ending up murdered on a boat back from a trip to Italy and Spain to Paraguay (they were apothecaries).