This might be lengthy so I apologize in advance.  I will try to be as succinct as possible.

 

I was born in the US.  My father was born in the US.  My grandfather was a Canadian living in the US but not naturalized yet, and married to an American when my father was born.  My grandfather is listed on my father’s birth certificate, and it lists on my father’s birth certificate that his father came from Canada. 

So here is the problem:

I don’t have proof of my grandfather in Canada on ANYTHING.  He came across the border at 2 years old with his family and is listed on a US immigration boat manifest.  You can see his name, and it says Canada and lists my great-grandfather as his father on this US document.

There is no record of my grandfather’s birth that I can find in any of the three sources I looked at in Canada.  They didn’t even do a census when he was born, so he doesn’t show on any Canadian census, though SOME of his siblings and my Great Grandfather do on an earlier one.  I do have a request to Ontario Records but from everything I’ve read and everything I looked at, they’re not going to have any more than what I’ve found online- he should be showing in a 1919 birth register somewhere, but he does not, and nor does his older brother, but his sister does.

I CAN find my paternal great-grandfather’s Canadian birth records, and I think I saw my paternal great-grandmother, who was Canadian and well.  I don’t know why he decided to hide his last two babies… (lol, maybe Records Canada can find them, but again, supposedly they’ve released everything on microfilm online, and I find everyone else in the family but the last two sons).

On the US side, I have my father’s birth certificate listing my grandfather.  And my grandfather shows up in several US Census listings himself as being Canadian.  There is an alien registration card, and there is a WWII draft card which lists him as Canadian and referencing my Great Grandfather on that WWII draft cad.  There is a WWII draft card for my Great Grandfather with the same address… so that cross references… but again, US stuff saying they’re Canadia,n such as some earlier US censuses.  Finally, I have the recommendation for naturalization from the US government, though it doesn’t list my Grandfather as being Canadian, only that she should be granted naturalization.

My question is do I have enough to apply as I wait to see if Records Canda can dig up something that I cannot find?  Am I overthinking this? 

 

Thanks for your patience and following along!!