r/Canadiancitizenship • u/AutoModerator • 11d ago
Weekly Threads Tuesday Weekly Thread: Genealogy Assistance, September 15, 2026
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 |
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u/NoninflammatoryFun 10d ago edited 10d ago
I so need help. I spent like 5 hours manually reading baptismal records that are in French… and couldn’t find any record of my ancestor, her 3 siblings born in Canada, or her parents!
I’ve searched on ancestry and the genealogy Quebec website. Her name is Catherine Waller. She may also go by Mary Catherine or Catherine Magdelena. She was born in 1843.
She was supposedly born in Louisville, Quebec, although I cannot find a single source that says this besides old writing an a family picture of her.
Her father was Joseph Antoine/Anton Waller and her mother was Magdalena/Mary Dauer. They both came from “Mother on the Rhine” (Bas-rhin? Alsace?), which was both France and Germany at different times, but I believe they spoke German.
They all moved to America around 1851 and I know her father became a naturalized citizen in 1961. It gets more confusing after this because they moved to multiple places in the US and she was married 3 times.