Iftody, Nicolai and Sanda

Nicolai Iftody was born in 1865 in the village of Molodia, Austria-Hungary. He married Sanda Strimbul also of Molodia and in 1899 they emigrated to Alberta with a family of one daughter and four sons. John was nine, Maria was seven and there were three younger boys, Elie, Petre and Mihai. They spent the first two years in a bordei near Andrew during which time the three small boys all died of croup. They were buried in the Wostok cemetery.

From Andrew, the Iftodys moved to Boian and homesteaded two miles north of the church. Here the family built a log house and began the hard work of clearing the land. The family increased in number. Unfortunately two of the younger daughters passed away. Annie died at age 11 in 1922 and Pachi|a died at age 3 in 1924. Six children lived to be adults.

Maria the eldest daughter married Mike Hantiuk and they farmed at Ispas for a number of years before moving to Vegreville where they raised a family of five boys and five girls. Maria worked in the Vegreville General Hospital for many years.
Katherine married Mike P. Hauca. They had a son Sandy (Alexander) and a daughter Jean. Another daughter Mary died at the age of six. The mother died young too, of kidney problems.
William, the youngest son, married Elizabeth Hudema. They farmed for many years at Boian, then moved to the great Peace River country where they continued farming. They had three sons and two daughters; Florence, Elinor, Johnny, Martin and Bill.
Four of their children became school teachers. Johnny is a successful farmer on the home place.
Jean (Ioana) married Mike P. Esak. The young couple first farmed at Desjarlais but eventually settled in Vegreville where they raised a family of two boys and two girls; Pete, George, Pearl and Alice.
Helen, the youngest daughter married Mike N. Yurko. They farmed for a few years the Yurko homeplace, then moved to Hairy Hill where Mike became an elevator agent. From there they moved to Vegreville where Helen, now a widow, still resides. They have a son William, who is a successful farmer in the Vegreville area and two daughters, Katherine and Lily both of whom are pharmacists.
John Iftody was born in 1890 in Molodia, Bukovina and came to Canada with his parents. They settled at Boian and John being the eldest son had to work extremely hard on the farm. As a young lad he trained a calf to haul wood on a sled from a forest about half a mile away. When his father sold the calf to acquire some much needed money, John felt he had lost a real friend. In 1911 John married Rose Goroniuk, a Ukrainian girl, daughter of Mike Goroniuk. They were mar-ried in St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox church and settled on the quarter of land across the road from John’s parents. There, John built a large log cabin and divided it into two large rooms. The doors faced west. The north end of the building was used as a barn for the cows and horses, the south end with more windows was their home. Rose mud-plastered it smoothly and the living quarters were whitewashed inside and out. This south room became a cozy little home. Significantly their first child, a healthy baby girl was born there on Christmas Day, 1912. Appropriately enough they named the child, Maria. John and his wife were very thrifty, pious and hardworking people. They were church-minded and attended religious services regularly. Through hard work they managed to acquire more land and when they could afford it, they built a sizeable two-storey home, at a respectable distance from their first home. Five children were born of this marriage.
Maria, the oldest, married Floyd G. Toma in 1931 and they farmed in the Boian district for many years. They had four sons and three daughters; Rosalette, Richard, Gerald, Delores, Kenneth, Marvin and Karen. Both Floyd and Mary were always active in the local community affairs, cultural, religious and political.
Metro farmed with his father for awhile then left for Two Hills where he operated a farm implement agency. There he married Anne Olinyk and they had two daughters, Patricia and Arlene. Sandra married George Porozni and settled on a farm at Boian, too. They had a daughter, Georgina and two sons, Ron and Barry. George and Sandra, too, were always active in local affairs and were always willing to help whenever possible. Mike attended the local school, then went to Willingdon High School. During the war he enlisted in the R.C.A.F. as a pilot and eventually went overseas. It was while in Britain that Mike met his future wife, Betty. After the war they came back to Canada and eventually settled in Calgary. They raised a family of four; Moira, Roy, Gary and Colin Nick, the youngest child of John and Frozina Iftody began farming after completing high school in Willingdon. He immediately undertook the task of modernizing the farmstead. A giant step forward was made when Nick bought and installed a 110-volt generating unit, fuelled by gasoline, which produced enough electricity to light up the farm home and the buildings. He even converted his mother’s wash machine to an electrically operated one.
In 1952 he married Katherine Lichuk of Andrew and together the young couple began farming. However, in 1956 they sold out and moved to Wildwood where Nick managed the local Texaco Bulk Station from which he serviced the oil fields. Six years later they moved to Edmonton where Nick works as an agent for a large insurance firm and for a hobby he does carpentry and has also managed to achieve a pilot’s license. To the Iftodys four daughters were born: Rosemarie, Peggy, Wendy and Barbara.
John Iftody passed away in 1975 and his wife Frozina died the following year. Both are buried at Boian.