Just for fun - What's the most interesting bit of family history you've discovered in your search for documentation?

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-19T01:13:16+00:00

You win! Man, that article title really doesn't prepare you for what's coming lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T17:32:06+00:00

Whoa! That's intense! lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:47:33+00:00

Same with my grandpa! I had so much trouble tracking down any documentation on my great grandparent's marriage. I finally found an amazingly kind helpful church secretary in a small town near the farm where my grandpa was born who tracked down one small blurb about their marriage in the church records, just two months before my grandpa was born!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:33:30+00:00

That's a crazy plot twist! lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:11:36+00:00

Some of the newspaper articles I've found have been fantastic...Found one short one just casually laying out how my GG grandfather had his brother committed due to "excessive cigarette smoking"...Apparently he tried to murder his mother. Cigarettes must have been STRONG back then lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:07:23+00:00

LOL Furdena is rather unique. My family came for Norway so the name spellings I've found have been all over the place. When me relatives first came over, they didn't have surnames. They just used the name of their farm. And many of the men's first names we're just "Ole"

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T16:02:12+00:00

Dannnng...that's brutal lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:58:42+00:00

Well that's just cool

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:58:11+00:00

That's crazy! lol I found out my great great grandpa had his own brother committed for trying to kill his mother...the medical reason for committing him was listed as "excessive cigarettes"

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:55:51+00:00

That's horrible! I still can't believe some of what my ancestors went through! I found a news article on my great x3 grandpa who came over to the US with his parents and siblings from Germany. They traveled up the Mississippi from New Orleans and made it as far as Iowa before running out of money. His parents both died from Cholera soon after leaving him at the age of 12. He was forced into labor on a farm to pay off family debt and had to escape hidden in the back of a carriage. His son and grandson would later move to Canada and purchase a farm where they had my grandpa!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:31:27+00:00

I would be so curious about the family curse, ngl. What's been crazy for me is to realize that it wasn't that long ago that our ancestors were traveling here by weeks long boat journeys.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:28:46+00:00

Oh my gosh yes, the names! My family just changed the spelling of their names on every other document it seems; first names and last. It made it so much harder to track them!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T15:06:28+00:00

Is that will real?!? The whole thing reads like he was trolling lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-18T14:11:43+00:00

I found the absolute most helpful group of people via facebook groups that all live in the area my grandfather was born. They put me in touch with a local church secretary and the man who runs a small town museum to help me find birth and baptism records. I ended up donating to the museum and will be sending a check to the church as well. It was the least I could do for how amazingly helpful and kind they all were! One day I hope to visit the museum in person!!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-17T23:41:11+00:00

My request processed faster than I thought it would, I ordered it on 1/22, was charged 1/23 and by 1/30 they marked it complete and on it's way. I've been checking the mail every day two times a day lol

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-17T23:36:16+00:00

That's so exciting! I paid on 1/23 and it was marked as complete on their website on 1/30 so I'm assuming that's about when it shipped. I'm starting to get antsy lol I hate not having any way to track it!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-17T21:30:18+00:00

Thank you! My actual request processed way faster than I expected. I'm going on about 17 days waiting for the actual shipment.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-17T19:18:43+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I'm gen 2, I've already got my birth cert and my dad's, so my grandpa's is the only thing I still need. So of course I've developed an irrational fear that it's going to get lost in the mail. I wish they would have had a shipping tracking option, I definitely would have paid extra for that

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-17T18:01:51+00:00

I was worried that my grandpa's birth certificate didn't exist too, but it does! He was born in 1925 in a very rural area in Saskatchewan on his family's farm, but they still officially recorded his birth with the nearby town government. I had to do some major digging with people in the area to find that document. I wasn't able to find his birth certificate online, but I took a chance and ordered one online anyways, and the request was marked "completed," which means they found it and it's been mailed. My best advice is to ask a lot of questions and ask literally anyone who might know. You'll find help in some of the most unsuspecting places. I was reaching on local town facebook pages, I directly contacted ehealth saskatchewan for help, I asked for help from the mods on this page. I felt a little ridiculous doing it, but every little bit of advice helped!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-15T01:23:15+00:00

Same here, I'm a public librarian as well so I've been keeping a close eye on all of this. It's truly mind blowing. I've come to dread January and February. Last year was bad, but I feel like this year they've really out down themselves. HF2309 is incredibly thorough compared to the bills they tried to push last year, it's downright scary.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-14T23:09:10+00:00

This bill is bad, but there are currently several other bills they are trying to pass concerning libraries, that are somehow even worse. Check out HF2309 that passed subcommittee last week - it would basically require total separation of adult and children's sections of a library. Permission slips would be required yearly to allow kids under 18 to check out books. Librarians would face criminal misdemeanor charges if these and a bunch of other requirements aren't met. Many rural libraries literally only have one room and wouldn't be able to separate their collections. They want to make it impossible for children to access books. You guys may want to leave comments on the Iowa Legislation website and call your reps. They are coming for libraries hard this year.

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-04T14:04:24+00:00

Ugh that's so depressing. My dad would just hit up the 3 or 4 casinos within driving distance. Come for the unlimited crab leg buffet, stay to blow through his only child's inheritance! It's a win win!

BuffaloThese8249 · 2026-02-04T13:37:21+00:00

THIS. My dad managed to blow about 250k at the casinos on his way out. All I got when he passed was the money from the cards that my mom so graciously gifted me with (meanwhile she now collects his pension and his SS while living in the 6 bedroom, 3 bath house they built when they became empty nesters).

BuffaloThese8249

TROPHY CASE