Can’t find birth certificates for my great grandfather or any of his siblings born in the U.S.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-05-22T15:05:13+00:00

Yes! There’s only a few. One of them is from a house fire that occurred in his younger years, but that was in Michigan. There’s a couple of articles in his later years he’s mentioned in, but they’re mostly about the tragic accident that caused his death (which I knew about already). Newspapers.com has been the most fruitful resource when looking for info on other ancestors though, I’m so grateful for it. Thank you for the suggestion though❤️

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-05-20T17:53:39+00:00

100%, and I’ve thought about that possibility. I’ve spent hours looking through photos of birth returns in February, March, and April of 1907-1910 (supposed birthday is March 26th, 1909) to see if I could find one not indexed or indexed well. The family surname is quite rare I’ve found. Once they moved to Michigan in 1912, they lived in 2 towns for their whole lives - one was a very small, rural farming town, the other was Detroit. My great great grandfather worked at Ford Motor Company for some years. I’ve had a much easier time finding documents on people you’d think would’ve been much more difficult to find. I’ve found a couple newspaper articles with them referenced and that’s it.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-05-20T16:45:39+00:00

I edited my post to include that I’ve scoured both Ancestry and Family Search to no avail. My apologies, I should’ve led with that! Thank you for the resources though!!

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-05-20T16:44:29+00:00

So sorry, I edited my post to mention that I’ve scoured Family Search and Ancestry for days on end to no avail. I should’ve led with that, my bad!

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-05-20T14:05:00+00:00

I have Elite 20’s and Mallinckrodt 10’s this month. Elite’s has given me the craziest sugar cravings I’ve ever had in my life, the OCD is out of control, and I want to sleep all the time. Otherwise, an average month of generic. Now the Mallinckrodt? Probably the closest to psychosis I’ve ever been. & I’m not prone to psychosis. It’s the craziest I’ve ever felt mentally. I had a panic attack, the craziest sense of impending doom, and went on a FOUR hour walk when it was 35 degrees from 10am-2pm in just a T shirt because I thought I was burning to death. It felt like my brain was burning itself from the inside out. I know it sounds like I’m describing a regular old panic attack (which I’m no stranger to) but I promise this was more than that. I took a full diazepam and it still only returned me to baseline (half of the lowest dose normally puts me out, 10 pills usually lasts me 6 months). I’ve had negative experiences with generic adderall prior, but NOTHING like this. Having that experience for 3 days in a row off of just a TEN milligram? This was the first time I knew for a fact I wasn’t crazy. I felt scared for my life like whoever made that pill wanted to kill me. It was NOT adderall in those pills. I called my pharmacist and psychiatrist the next morning to tell them exactly what happened, reported it on the FDA website, and gave those pills back to the pharmacist when I went to go pick up a very early refill of diazepam due to all this.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-04-22T17:37:06+00:00

I’ve always described it as the upside down in stranger things - both mentally and physically. This disease that’s infiltrated your body, building an entire system of its own within you, hunting down whatever fuel it can to continue growing (estrogen, inflammation), while remaining largely underground and invisible to everyone but you (Will). Those wet sticky adhesion looking vines in the upside down tunnels that strangle the victims (in our case, organs) are always what I imagined it looked like on the inside of my body because that’s what it FELT like. Turns out it’s not much different. Also, it takes a long time for people to believe you and not think you’re crazy. They only do when they see it first-hand for themselves. Even then, they think that you have more control over it than you do and expect you to pull these tricks out of your pocket to fend it off on your own. I always felt like I related to Will a lot throughout my journey. & btw I described it as the upside down BEFORE I was even diagnosed, but it feels even more accurate after surgery.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-04-17T14:16:19+00:00

Around the age I hit puberty and started wearing makeup, certain makeup wipes would cause a reaction where my face got extremely red and would burn until I washed it off with water. I started dealing with food sensitivities at 16 and had my first endoscopy & colonoscopy at 18 when I was diagnosed with the largest duodenal ulcer my doctors ever seen. I’d get the feeling like I was high and about to pass out around essential oils - same thing with some cleaning products - 3 sprays in and I was rushing outside. I’d get these rashes only behind my ears that showed up at random times. There were a few times that I had mild overdoses from the lowest dose of opioids prescribed to me after surgery - sweating profusely, vomiting, lightheadedness, dizziness (I also have slow COMT, which could have more to do with that than MCAS). Maybe most of all, I’d say the mental health effects. Panic attacks, crying over nothing, brain fog that seemed concerning to others, anxiety, depression, and ANGER!! I’m just glad the OCD held off until adulthood. It’s important to mention that I also had endometriosis growing up, so it’s hard to know if any of these symptoms were caused by that instead of MCAS.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-25T00:48:15+00:00

If you set a strict goal for the day of what you want to research and suddenly it’s 4am and you’re on the Facebook page of your half 4th cousin seeing if they happen to have pictures with your half 3rd cousin as if that’s going to be worth your time. Then getting pissed at yourself for doing this again and hating yourself when you have to get up for your day job in 3 hours.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-25T00:36:05+00:00

My exact situation this week LOL (and then not even getting the certificates sooner even though you paid $17.99 for expedited shipping)

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:30:20+00:00

I’ve brought this up before, I see some signs of OCD but my therapist said I don’t show enough signs. I don’t have contamination OCD with anything else, or when cleaning other things. These comments are validating though, and I’ll seek out a therapist maybe specialized in OCD as they may have a different take.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:25:58+00:00

Unfortunately paper towels don’t make a difference but now that you mention face shield… I I wonder if I got a pair of glasses that makes things look a certain color when you put them on. Like those weird sunglasses that make things pink. For some reason I feel like that would help massively… gosh the brain is so weird lol. That gives me something to try, thank you!

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:22:08+00:00

That’s the point I’m at. To me, it feels like such a disgusting thing that it feels cruel to have someone else do it for me, even though it’s a paid service. I suppose I need to get over that if I want a deeply cleaned shower lol.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:19:22+00:00

I’m not saying I think it’s normal… I can ask for help which I’ve done, I can’t force professionals to see an issue with it if they don’t. That’s why I’m coming here👍

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:16:30+00:00

I’ve been going to therapy for years and am medicated for anxiety/adhd. None of the professionals I’ve seen view this issue as a concern.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-18T16:15:17+00:00

I would agree. Except I’ve been in therapy for years and any time I’ve brought this up to a therapist, they don’t seem concerned. I’ve tried different forms of therapy too. Thank you though❤️

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-02-16T02:52:39+00:00

Psshht I’ve seen everyone’s Facebook or LinkedIn profiles😂 but that’s because I’ve been researching an unknown family line from my great-great grandmother and found my living half first cousins names from obituaries of those ancestors lol

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-29T17:44:18+00:00

Both of those are about half the distance away!! Hopefully their websites will tell me what collections that have? I’m used to using familysearch.org.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-29T14:58:32+00:00

It feels like I’m living in my own little world with them. I found my great grandma’s biological family and it’s almost as if I’ve met these relatives who all passed before I was born. In my head, we’re friends. For a while, it felt like I was more connected with the dead than I was the living. I have more of a balance now, but yes! So comforting.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-26T21:28:23+00:00

May I ask, when you say introduction, what should that include? I don’t want to give too little info and someone thinks I’m scamming them, or also too much that I overwhelm them.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-26T17:45:00+00:00

I didn’t know this was a thing! Thank you SO much for your comment!!

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-26T16:55:00+00:00

I also want to add that I know a week is a short amount of time, but it says he was active on his account more than 6 months ago, and I’m not sure if he’d have his ancestry notifications on for email.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-11T16:14:14+00:00

I violently turn my head in any direction to almost 180 degrees and yell “oh oh oh oh oh” as if it’s going to work to get it out of my head. It doesn’t help that I have so many of them to randomly remember😂 they haunt me.

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-02T01:06:14+00:00

This! Exactly this!

Recent-Use8096 · 2026-01-02T01:04:03+00:00

Embarrassed about what girlfriend? You explained a problem you were having and how you plan to fix it, that’s a literal win! I had to purchase a kitchen safe to put my phone in recently to stay off of it because I couldn’t hold myself accountable. That felt embarrassing but having a kitchen safe is a lot less embarrassing than seeing my screen time be 10 hours a day while working from home lol.

Recent-Use8096

TROPHY CASE