I grew up in Niagara Falls, New York, and we crossed the border into Ontario to see family several times a week. At the time, my childhood friend had dual citizenship. I wished I did, too.
So when I learned about Canada removing its first-generation limit to citizenship late last year, as the granddaughter of Canadians, I joined the more than 100,000 Americans who are now seeking proof of Canadian ancestry. In the process, I discovered pieces of my lineage I never knew existed.
Oddly, I learned that my grandmother’s first name was actually Valeda, not Flora, and one of my grandfather’s middle names was August, the same name I chose for my 6-year-old Great Pyrenees dog.
My father was the first in his family born in the U.S. to Canadian parents. His older sister, Genevieve, was Canadian. My grandfather was from Ontario and my grandmother’s family, dating back to the 1600s, hailed from Quebec but lived in Ottawa, Ontario, when she was a child.
Shortly before his 2020 death, my father told me his mother and her sister Valentine were born in Montreal.
I had visited aunts, uncles and cousins living in Sherbrooke, Quebec, but I had no idea how deeply rooted my ancestors were in the French Canadian province.
When I first checked the citizenship certification application requirements last fall, I discovered that certified birth, marriage, divorce and death records provide proof of Canadian family lineage, much like Maine’s Real ID rules.
A certified copy is a paper version guaranteed by the archivist of Ontario (or related province) to be a true reproduction of an original, and can be used in place of a birth, marriage or death certificate.
The archives hold the original registration books of Ontario births until 1920, marriages until 1945 and deaths until 1955. Registration records after these dates are held by the Ontario Registrar General and can be requested online through ServiceOntario. Each province has its own archives.
When I first began, the wait for a citizenship certificate response was about nine months. Today it’s at least a year and a half.
I thought the search for family records would be easy and that I’d be filing my citizenship certificate application in a week or two. I was wrong. It took me months to find everything.
Right at the start, I discovered that not everyone has a birth certificate. Some people were given birth registration numbers. For example, the only record of my grandmother’s birth was a baptismal record in archived church documents and a census record that showed she was still living in Canada when she was 9.
Tracking down the necessary records to find accurate names, dates, registration numbers, possible microfiche locations and other identifying details takes patience. It’s important to note that finding other documents related to a relative can lead to the document you need.
I started my search on Ancestry.com, which is a paid service that offers a free trial period. There I found other people who to my surprise had my grandparents in their family tree. Some of the documents I needed were in another person’s family tree.
Additional searches on Ancestry.ca gave me records I could not access in the American version without additional charges.
My grandfather’s records were easy to find. He had a registration but not a birth certificate, and I was able to get the registration number from a birth roster from the year he was born.
I learned something surprising: watch out for different names. My grandfather had two middle names, Emile August, that I never knew about. I always thought his middle name was Lorne.
My grandparents’ marriage license was in FamilySearch.com, a free service of the Church of Latter Day Saints. I noted all the numbers and details for my Archives of Ontario application.
The search for my grandmother’s records was much more complicated. She was French Canadian, living in Ontario. Most of her records were filed with the Roman Catholic Church and there were conflicting birth years and dates.
I searched hundreds of Ontario birth registrations in the year she was born and didn’t find her. On FamilySearch, I found my grandmother on another person’s family tree, although with a different first name. From that family tree, I located a baptismal record — listing her under the name I knew — from Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records, 1760-1923.
With everything pulled together, in April I applied with the Archives of Ontario for official, certified documents of birth and marriage. I had to apply for each document individually.
The way I understand it, the archives reproduces the documents from original records and certifies that they are authentic.
On July 20, the archive notified me that they found my requested documents and are processing the copies, but it may take a while. The fee is $33.00 for each certification and $1.11 per page.
GETTING YOUR DOCUMENTS
Additionally, I have applied for my father’s birth certificate from New York and I can use my Maine Real ID documents for the remainder of application.
My next step is to complete the Canadian Citizenship Certificate application with the documents that are on their way through the mail and get a photo — with very specific requirements — taken at the post office.
The process, well worth the investment of time, has been an adventure, much like a treasure hunt. While frustrating at times, when a piece of the puzzle was uncovered, it was exciting.
Once my dual citizenship is confirmed, I hope one day to buy a home in either Quebec or Nova Scotia to spend time with family and travel to all the villages in Quebec where my ancestors once lived.
If you’re wondering if you may be eligible to apply, take the quiz.
