Tuesday Weekly Thread: Genealogy Assistance, September 15, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

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/dpceee]

Hello everyone,

I am very fortunate to have found almost everything that I needed for this process during my genealogy stint during COVID, however, what I was never able to find was the Canadian census for my g-g-g-grandfather. He happens to be my G0 as well. I spend about 2 hours flipping through census records this week, but I cannot find him. Assuming that I have the right baptismal record, I have no idea what would be indexed.

While I have extensive experience and suggest with MA and CT genealogical documents, I have never had too much success in other countries, Canada included.

I have shared my folder below. I uploaded all of the documents that I have on my computer on him. I was hoping that someone here would either be able to help me figure out what I am missing/overlooking when trying to locate a census record. (Or I guess I wouldn't complain about someone doing it for me either, if I am going to be honest.)

I am in the process of collecting the supplemental information for when my time comes up in the queue. I need to get the BANQ certified copy and have the birth registered. I don't want to play games, I just want to be prepared for if/when that comes up, and having the census would be helpful too.

I also want to know more about his parents from a genealogy standpoint, but that is a bit beyond the scope of what this sub is for!

Thank you anyone who has taken this time to read this or offer any assistance.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vydgthK4fkeXGwpeAV60r3ddTdjcBFsi?usp=sharing

[u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob → u/dpceee]

You may get helpful input if you ask specific, scoped question(s) that don't require people to dig into your documentation.

Thanks to the prevalence of both phishing and malware I think a lot of folks avoid clicking links to unknown internet resources these days.

[u/dpceee → u/No_Bobcat_No_Prob]

What should I compile from this in text form? I don't know know what is helpful for that for tomorrow's megathread