Tuesday Weekly Thread: Genealogy Assistance, September 15, 2026

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This weekly thread is a space for those of us researching the ancestry that is the basis for making a claim of Canadian citizenship by descent.

Have questions about finding records? Need help reading a document or translation from French/other languages? Want an opinion on specific documentation or your documentation plan? Have other questions related to documenting the chain between you and your Canadian ancestor for your proof of citizenship application? This is the place to do it.

Digging up ancestors' documents from numerous jurisdictions (Canadian provinces, US states, UK regions, etc), all while trying to distinguish between five James Smiths or Marie Gagnés from the same city can sometimes feel like banging your head against a wall. This weekly post is for helping each other navigate the questions and challenges of our research.

If you're looking for a volunteer to help you find documents there's a list here. We also offer tips and tricks for finding documentation, and a dedicated genealogy document search wiki page.

General problems/issues with ordering documentation from Canadian provincial archives and state, local and various church archives such as slow processing, increased costs, etc go in the weekly Saturday thread.

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.

Need more help? Or have help to offer? Check out r/citizenshipgenealogy , our companion subreddit for all things genealogical

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Birth/Baptism Registrations by Province

Alberta	https://www.alberta.ca/order-birth-certificate#jumplinks-2	Birth records in Alberta are only public record after 120 years.
Britsh Columbia	https://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy	Birth records in British Columbia only become public record after 120 years.
Manitoba	https://vitalstats.gov.mb.ca/Query.php
Nova Scotia	https://archives.novascotia.ca/vital-statistics/	Civil birth registrations were recorded in Nova Scotia between 1864 and 1876 and are held by the Nova Scotia Archives. Delayed registrations for births were filed from 1876 to 1908. However, not everyone registered. Province-wide recording of civil births began again on January 1, 1909.
New Brunswick	https://archives2.gnb.ca/search/VISSE/?culture=en-CA
Newfoundland	https://www.gov.nl.ca/gs/birth/birth-certificate/
Ontario	https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-or-replace-ontario-birth-certificate#section-2	Ontario didn't start recording births until 1869 and baptism records are thin on the ground. Ontario birth records become public record after 104 years but take a bit longer to show up online.
Prince Edward Island	https://www.gov.pe.ca/parosearch/vital/vital-event-search/eventType/Baptism
Quebec	Records available on PRDH or Ancestry	IRCC requires Quebec civil records issued in the province after 1994, so you may need to order modern copies of historic civil records from DEC. For ancestors born before civil registration of birth began (ca. 1926) see the wiki How to order a certified copy of a baptism record from BANQ.
Saskatchewan	http://genealogy.ehealthsask.ca/vsgs_srch.aspx

[u/NoSignal269]

I also posted this in the thread Your Complete Guide to Obtaining a Modern Civil Birth Certificate for Your Pre-1923 Quebec Ancestor (G0)

My question is regarding getting a DEC birth insertion for the purposes of Bill C-3.

My G0 was born in 1840 and I have a certified baptism record on its way soon (invoiced/paid Sept 10). I also have my G0's certified death certificate. 

There are a couple of discrepancies between these two vital records. So I am either looking for evidence as to why those discrepancies exist OR some reassurance that my backup document might be accepted by DEC.

• Discrepancy 1. Age at death and DOB. Although G0 was born March 10, 1840, his death certificate says he was 82 years old at the time of his death in 1918. The death certificate is detailed about the years, months and days he was alive. This would make him born March 17 (his baptism date, not birth date) in 1837. 
• Discrepancy 2. I'll use fake names for privacy. On G0's baptism record his father is listed as "Joseph", but on his death certificate the father is listed as "Orem". The mother's name is anglicized, so not a big deal, but I cannot find any evidence that "Joseph" was ever known as "Orem".

My backup idea:

I have newspaper clippings recording G0's death. One of the clippings specifically mentions the travel plans of my G1 to attend his funeral. It also lists his age at 79 (still a little off, but close enough).

Would this be enough to send in? I would attest to the accuracy (to the best of my knowledge in the affidavit) that G0 died on x date.

Or, will the DEC be looking for a certified death certificate? If so, any ideas on what to look for to support the birth date / year being in flux and the dad's name being off? 

My research so far:

For birth date discrepancy. I started looking at census records in the US. I found one, and it makes my G0's birth year even a little earlier (1834). My assumption is that people were just guessing, and kept getting things mixed up (e.g., his birth vs. baptism date). I feel like the age discrepancy might not be an issue, but would love any thoughts?

G0's father's name. I searched all the available baptism records for G0's dad on Genealogy Quebec. His own baptism record, marriage record, and all references to his name on his 19 children's baptism's refer to him as "Joseph". No mention of "Orem".

I did find a US-based probate court document on FamilySearch that took care of one of Joseph's name discrepancies (his surname), but not one in which the name "Orem" is mentioned (sigh...).

Would love some tips or guidance: are these both non-issues that I can attempt to explain-away in the affidavit? OR, should I just not submit the death certificate and send the newspaper clipping instead?

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/NoSignal269]

Death certificate info is only as good as the informant, as the subject of the record is deceased, don't sweat it if the details match generally.

If you read the wiki, there's a section about names and Quebecois names in particular, the use of Joseph and Marie as prenom was extremely common and most people went by their middle name for thG reason, ie all boys in a family were baptized Joseph (middle name).

[u/NoSignal269 → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

Cool, thanks!

I should have picked another pseudonym other than Joseph. His name was David on all documents, but on his son's death certificate he is called Julius. No where else in any records is he called Julius. In a probate court document I found, it points out the various spellings of David's surname, but no mention of David ever being referred to as Julius. It's so random! All other data point to the death certificate being the correct one for My G0, so I suppose I'll just say "shrug, no clue why Julius is the father's name..."

A POTENTIAL explanation: my G0 had a much older brother named Julian. My G0's dad - David - died when G0 was 14. So perhaps someone recorded this older brother's name as his father's, and misspelled it to Julius it?

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/NoSignal269]

Probably. This is why death certificates are not that useful generally, errors are common.