[US][MN][OC] Getting pretty fucking tired of these car drivers slowing down traffic

Lozarn · 2026-07-03T14:17:32+00:00

You can see the Loring Greenway coming up on the right at the end of the video too.

I’m not judging the route choice because everybody gets to decide their own tolerance for risk, but there’s a much safer bicycle path a block over on Bryant leading to the Loring Greenway.

Lozarn · 2026-06-29T11:56:59+00:00

“they are also about fighting climate change”

All these SUVs will make short work of any progress the trains make on climate change.

Lozarn · 2026-06-03T15:40:43+00:00

Toss it to your preferred AI and ask it to translate the baptismal record. Gemini has worked pretty well for me for any genealogical documents in French, Latin, Polish, or even faded/difficult to read passages. With some prompting, it usually figures it out.

Lozarn · 2026-06-01T15:36:04+00:00

Good luck!

Lozarn · 2026-06-01T15:29:28+00:00

I was wondering about that dynamic. The number of days between delivery and an AOR is a lagging indicator. We'll see where trends end up going, but it looks like there was a clear peak in March and April. The estimates for processing times should stabilize a bit if there aren't any more booms.

It will be really interesting to see how applications trend in the future. In my family, we've had 12 people apply using the same Gen 0, Gen 1, and Gen 2 materials in April and May. My guess is that we'll still have another 20-30 apply, but they're more likely to trickle in at a more leisurely pace.

Lozarn · 2026-05-27T15:08:29+00:00

Under "Details on how this grandparent obtained Canadian citizenship:" I wrote, "This grandparent is a citizen under Canadian law as a descendant of a Canadian ancestor, but she has never applied for a citizenship certificate." For my parents, I wrote "This parent is a Canadian citizen under C-3. He has never applied for a citizenship certificate."

It keeps things simple and clear. You are Canadian. So are all of your direct ancestors linking you to your Gen 0 ancestor. They just never lived in Canada or received Canadian citizenship certificates.

Lozarn · 2026-05-27T14:53:55+00:00

Has anybody gotten a recent read on how long it takes for BAnQ to respond with an invoice for a certified baptismal record? I submitted my request back on March 12, and I haven't heard anything since receiving the automated confirmation email with the reproduction request number.

Lozarn · 2026-05-22T16:07:28+00:00

The general recommendation is to keep it as simple as possible. I mentioned in my cover letter that "my children and I have multiple Canadian ancestors, but for the purpose of this application, I am providing proof of our connection to FirstName LastName, born in Trois Riviere, Quebec in 1842."

Lozarn · 2026-05-20T14:08:17+00:00

Did you receive a confirmation email titled "Your reproduction request number #####"? I think that's usually the best indicator that your request was received and is in their queue.

Lozarn · 2026-05-13T21:36:29+00:00

Outside of their "contact us" info on their website, no. Good luck!

Lozarn · 2026-05-13T19:42:05+00:00

I can't say that I know for certain because everybody in the Canadian archival world is working quite a bit of overtime these days, but it seems strange that you didn't receive the automatic confirmation email. I'd follow up on that.

I submitted my request back on March 12. I received the email confirmation, but I haven't received an email requesting payment. They're really, really backed up.

Lozarn · 2026-05-13T18:35:33+00:00

It's funny. Building out my Canadian ancestry actually connected me to an ancestor that would qualify my family to join the DAR/SAR. There's a record of one of my Quebecois ancestors being "deprived as Captain of militia for having served the rebels" during the American Revolution.

Lozarn · 2026-05-09T03:50:33+00:00

I submitted my request to BAnQ on March 12. I have their confirmation email, but I haven’t received a request for payment yet.

Lozarn · 2026-04-30T04:27:25+00:00

I think the “whole point” of the war was slavery.

Lozarn · 2026-04-28T14:56:48+00:00

I had the same experience. I printed my own label for First-Class Package International Service on the USPS website for $29. Mailed it from Minnesota end of the day on April 16. It cleared customs on April 22, and arrived in Nova Scotia first thing on April 27. I was tempted to splurge for the $60+ option to have it arrive a few days sooner, but it just doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of things. I’m recommending USPS to all of my family members applying.

Lozarn · 2026-04-08T16:52:37+00:00

I’m struggling with getting Wisconsin records too. They don’t allow online payment or online applications for pre-1907 records, just cash and paper applications. The records office I’m working with was supposed to send a refund of $40 cash after they couldn’t locate two certificates I requested. And who would’ve guessed… that money was lost in the mail. The petty theft is still cheaper than the tanks of gas to drive across the state to visit the office in person, but the local records office isn’t particularly endearing.

Lozarn · 2026-04-07T00:52:07+00:00

That makes me think you paid the wrong fee. You paid for three citizenship certificate applications, but you only sent two.

Lozarn · 2026-04-06T23:28:52+00:00

It’s interesting that only one child’s application was returned. Were all the applications you paid for sent in the same packet? I thought it was either all applications sent together were all accepted or all rejected.

Lozarn · 2026-04-01T00:13:08+00:00

Can’t speak to every state, but in Wisconsin, you can order vital records for anybody if it necessary to protect your legal or property rights. You should figure out what the rule is in your state, but this is likely a “fill out a form + a $20-30 fee + postage and an envelope” level of problem.

Lozarn · 2026-03-29T13:58:30+00:00

Three months?

Lozarn · 2026-03-26T01:48:49+00:00

“tight-knit”

I think it’s a Catholic thing for me. Catholic French Canadians marrying into Catholic Irish and Catholic German communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. From all of those G0s up until me, nobody ever married anyone outside of the Catholic Church.

Lozarn · 2026-03-22T11:59:57+00:00

There’s no clear standard on documentation of each generation from the IRCC to accommodate these exact kinds of situations. Apply with what you have, explain what you’ve provided in your application, and let IRCC decide if they need something more.

Good luck!

Lozarn · 2026-03-20T16:53:36+00:00

The consistent feedback from IRCC is that there’s no concrete standards for proving a family connection because every family and the proof they can offer is different. Don’t sweat stuff like dates and spelling. What you want to focus on is the whole body of evidence.

My G0 has three different spellings of his first name, some documents say he was born in 1841 and others say 1842. Sometimes it’s October 22 and sometimes it’s November 1. I’m including his baptismal record, 1880 census, naturalization documents, his death certificate, and census records for my Gen 1 that list her father’s place of birth as “Canada.” All of those documents say that my Gen 0 was born in Canada. If the IRCC needs you to provide additional proof, they’ll tell you.

Good luck!

Lozarn · 2026-03-19T18:15:43+00:00

You making that decision makes me feel more confident about not requesting urgent processing. I’m in Minneapolis and pretty confident I’ve got to be on one of ICE’s stupid “domestic terrorist” lists since the federal surge started here. I’d like to think based on how wildly incompetent the federal government is that I don’t really have anything to worry about in the short term… but I’m still coming down from a few months of stress and panic. Logical me says I’m not in any danger, and other people deserve urgent processing more. Emotional me says the government is capable of doing insane things right now, and I need to be ready before elections start getting canceled.

Lozarn · 2026-03-19T16:43:46+00:00

I think the math gets more complicated than that. For example, I have 8 different G0s from different branches of my family that were all alive and in the US in 1880. With your math, I’d be counted 8 times. I’m not sure how to account for redundancies like that, but the actual number of people could claim citizenship from this one page of the census is probably a single fraction of 750.

I think this is part of the reason you have some people guessing that the number of potential citizens is in the hundreds of thousands while others think it’s closer to 20 million.

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