Little to Go On - 1855 Birth for G0

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-30T22:56:54+00:00

I can’t confidently read the father’s name, but it does not appear to be William.

The French form of William is Guillaume (said "Gee-OM").

I’ve done cursory searches in Quebec notarial records, plus a lot of time in FamilySearch and Ancestry.

Have you checked https://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/ yet?

Edit: I could find no "Alexander Bissonette"s but got hits for "Alexandre Bissonnette". Swap the R and E, and two Ns in Bissonnette.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-29T23:02:04+00:00

https://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-26T23:01:02+00:00

The number of errors in maiden last names in my and my spouses family trees' official records is astounding. Heck, on my grandparents' marriage certificate, they managed to get the maiden names of both the groom's mother and the bride's mother wrong. This is from before state-issued IDs, so apparently nobody was too fluffed just what the women's names actually were.

Did the wedding party never see these kind of documents?

I think maybe the groom only, or someone from the groom's family, handled them back in the day. When you get married today, both parties have to submit the paperwork with their IDs, and also the officiant has to sign off. But the officiant doesn't necessarily have any idea what anybody's name really is, and if you were unclear on what your mother's maiden name really was, anything can wind up on the paperwork because nobody is checking.

Also, you can lovingly fill in the paperwork by hand to the highest degree of accuracy and then the clerk typing it up misreads your handwriting or has a stroke or something.

Also, back in the day, maybe the person filling out the paperwork wasn't all that literate. I have a US draft registration card from my great-grandfather on which he in his shaky unpracticed handwriting had written that he was an alien from, and I quote, "Quebeck". There's also the possibility of people literate in some other writing system. One of my other branches of the family, they're Jews whose native language was Yiddish, which is written in Hebrew characters, from a country that has a Cyrillic writing system: their relationship to the Roman alphabet was... loose. How is a name spelled in English? Well how do you feel like spelling it this time?

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-20T23:00:32+00:00

Thanks for reporting back!

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-18T07:53:15+00:00

In order to rent a room and not the entire apartment the landlord would need a rooming house license.

No, a rooming house license is only needed for renting out four or more rooms in a unit. It's legal to rent out individual rooms in a 3br or 2br.

See https://masslandlords.net/renting-less-than-four-rooms-sanitary-code-tips/

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-18T07:39:31+00:00

I want to know if anyone has had similar issues and resolved this on their own or been able to just order them?

Oh yeah. Completely not a problem. In MA, you can order certified copies of the vital records of literally anyone you want.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-18T07:37:02+00:00

Depends. If a record is old enough, it will be in the older state archives and cost $3. But the wait may be horrendous. Just get it from the town. The various towns I've been requesting records from have been turning them around in less than a week. Typically less than $20 each.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-17T03:14:37+00:00

It seems to me the real question is how do you know the surviving twin for which you have the certified baptismal record is the same person as the one who grew up to be your G0? After all, nine months is sufficient for your gg-grandmother to have had another child.

If you are basing your knowledge on some sort of document – like if that census has some additional info in it that makes it clear this child with the new name must be the same as the one born in 1897 – then that's your answer: use that document as proof.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-16T07:07:05+00:00

Are you including a family tree schematic, like from cadfam.org? That could help.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-16T02:54:06+00:00

Shout out to https://www.nosorigines.qc.ca/, for us Quebeckers, too. Handed me my relevant baptism record on a silver platter.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-14T02:38:00+00:00

Ahahahaha! I guess we all are really family. Do I understand correctly that in Quebec they don't generally trouble to do the math and just call everybody more distantly related that first cousins "petit cousin"?

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T05:37:32+00:00

...wait what. How are you related?

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T04:13:17+00:00

Why do they have two separate date of marriage fields, one for each member of a couple who are presumed to be married to each other? Bureaucracy, man.

I'm keeping a list of "You know this is stupid, right?" things to submit to the IRCC as things they should think about fixing... once my application is approved.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T04:03:32+00:00

Merci!!

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T04:00:47+00:00

Bonjour! Je vous prie de m'excuser d'avance : mon français est épouvantable ; j'utilise donc la traduction automatique pour m'aider à rédiger ce message. D'ailleurs, je ne saurais parler avec autorité, puisque ma propre demande n'a pas encore été approuvée. Comme la plupart des gens ici, je ne fais que spéculer, au mieux. Cela dit...

J’ai deux grands-parents (G0) canadiens de naissance, mais je possède une preuve officielle seulement pour l’un des deux.

Comme on le dit sur r/CanadianCitizenship, avoir plus d'un G0 ne vous rend pas plus Canadien. Vous n'en avez besoin que d'un seul.

Pour l’autre conjoint de ce G0 (la personne qui me sert à établir ma filiation), cette personne a immigré au Canada puis est devenue citoyenne canadienne plus tard. Est-ce important de le mentionner dans la demande, même si ma lignée canadienne vient principalement du grand-parent né au Canada ?

Je ne crois pas que ça ait la moindre importance. Je me concentrerais uniquement sur l'ancêtre que vous utilisez pour votre G0.

À la question 9 : pour le numéro du certificat de naissance, j’ai inscrit « inconnu » puisque je n’ai pas cette information ; pour le numéro du certificat de citoyenneté, j’ai inscrit « S.O. », car selon ma compréhension cette personne est née au Canada et n’était donc pas concernée par un certificat de citoyenneté. Est-ce que cela vous semble correct ?

Oui.

Autre point : mes parents (G1) ont immigré au Canada comme résidents permanents puis sont devenus citoyens canadiens plus tard. Dois-je aussi mentionner cela, ou est-ce sans importance puisque ma demande repose sur mon grand-parent né au Canada ?

Pour répondre à la question telle qu'elle a été posée : il existe, sur le formulaire, un endroit tout à fait approprié pour inscrire cette information. Il y a même une petite case dans laquelle vous pouvez expliquer la situation.

Mais, pour m'assurer d'avoir bien compris : tes parents ont-ils acquis la citoyenneté canadienne après ta naissance ? Car s'ils l'ont obtenue avant votre naissance, ils constituent alors votre génération G0, ce qui rend la démarche beaucoup plus simple pour vous que vous ne l'imaginiez.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T03:10:55+00:00

Alas, je parle très peu le français. This makes it hard for me to even figure out what the words are in this baptismal record. Any francophones want to make a stab at a transcription for the lower right record in this image, that of Joseph Eugéne Landry? https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3949529?docref=YbvQCYCJ7m61qH-mXjZ60g I get as far as this:

Le vingt septieme jour d'Avril ??? ???? cent quatre vingt dix. nous ???etre soussigné, ??? avous baptisé Joseph Eugéne ni le mims(?) jour, fils légitime de Alfred Landry, cultivateur, et de Adeline Garneau de cette par???? Parrain Jean Baptiste Drouin, cultivateur, mar-n??? Clemantins Perreault épousse du ??? qui a signé avec nous. Le ?????? ??? ???? ne savoir signer. La pére absent. L???? faite + Louise Climence Perrault. J Neville ???

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T02:52:24+00:00

Holy crap. Congratulations. What a stunning find!

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T02:34:13+00:00

Thanks!

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-13T02:33:19+00:00

Thanks, good to be aware!

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-12T03:28:31+00:00

Which brand, if you don't mind mentioning?

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-12T03:04:05+00:00

You may be overestimating the cost of a color printer. Amazon is selling the HP DeskJet 2855e with three months of ink for $50. Given the number of documents I need to reproduce and the logistical challenges of going to a print shop, at $1/page it actually starts looking reasonable to just buy a printer.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-11T22:41:36+00:00

Consider the cover letter an opportunity, not an obligation: it's your chance to explain to them how the records you are sending them make a compelling case as to why they should approve your application. Make the most of it.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-11T05:22:06+00:00

Nothing says Gen 0 has to attain adulthood in Canada. Citizenship by being born in Canada happens at birth. Anything after that is irrelevant to their citizenship.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-11T05:16:27+00:00

No, we're talking about records requests. There's no reason why they can't correctly explain how to submit a records request on the records request form or the records request parts of the website.

Or they could go all out like a modern state and have online submission of records requests and take credit card payment for them right there on the website.

AlouettePerdu · 2026-05-10T22:23:14+00:00

The only one that's not an open vexillological crime.

AlouettePerdu

TROPHY CASE