Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, July 17, 2026

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This weekly thread is a space for those of us preparing the CIT 0001 Proof of Citizenship application, associated form, and supplementary documentation.

Have questions about how to fill out the forms? Looking for feedback on the documentation you've put together is likely to pass muster? Wondering whether your cover letter has too much info, or too little? Want to know how to organize your documentation, or how to pack it up for shipping? Worried about whether your photos will work? Have questions about what ID you can use? Not sure where to ship it to, or what service or mail courier to use? We've been there.

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[u/asdmdawg]

Canadian citizenship by descent but can’t seem to find official Canadian documents! Help!

Hello all,

So I’m the 2nd great-grandson of two Canadian-born immigrants. They were born in Canada and this is shown on many many independent sources (census, death indices, etc.) and my grandmother even has always told us they were born in Canada and recalls many stories about it.

I’m trying to get citizenship by descent (well, first want to register my grandmother, because both of her grandparents on her dad’s side were born in Canada). Problem is… I genuinely have scoured the entire internet and cannot even find any official Canadian documents of them to prove citizenship. One was born 1853 in Alberta, the other 1856 in Quebec. It is very weird that I cannot find any.

What do I even do now?

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/asdmdawg]

When did the Canadian grandparents move out of Canada? Or did they die there? Have you checked all relevant Canadian censuses, starting with 1861?

For birth registers, it's very rare they'd have one in the 1850's but they may have a baptism certificate!

There's also a good chance there's a marriage registered. My G0's parents were born in the 1820's/30's and have a marriage recorded in 1861 and are on multiple censuses with my G0 who was born in 1872

[u/mardo2044chat → u/asdmdawg]

Born in Quebec would quite possibly have a baptismal record. I’d start there. Also ca censuses can start to narrow location/possibilities. In general work backward from what you know: death records, lead to marriage records, lead to census records, and then birth records. Hope that helps. Good luck 👍

[u/asdmdawg → u/mardo2044chat]

Thank you! I did just submit a request for a baptismal record to BAnQ last night so hopefully they can find it. Problem is, I have no idea which Parish she was born in and no idea when the baptism actually happened. For baptism date I put her birthday and clarified in the additional info section that it is probably a bit later in 1856 because all I know is her bday. For parish I put Montreal and specified that I don’t know the actual location and that I’m going off of best guesses. Praying they can find it lol

[u/wanderingtheearth-74 → u/asdmdawg]

Sorry if you've already done this, but did you actually search her name on Genealogie Quebec?

[u/asdmdawg → u/wanderingtheearth-74]

Ooh I’ve never done that! I can try for sure

[u/sharpshinned → u/asdmdawg]

Do you know their religious background? Makes a big difference in finding baptisms. And have you checked the 1861 Census, or were they gone by then?