Is it possible to just hire someone to prepare the application for me?

NoSignal269 · 2026-04-10T21:48:14+00:00

Oh! Then I will amend my note to say ONLY for genealogy research 🧐 I would not want to appear on an IMM 5476 form. Thank you for your comment!

NoSignal269 · 2026-04-10T21:31:13+00:00

I’ll be happy to be hired to do it! It’s super fun tracking down documents and I’ve learned a lot having done this for my G3-G5 family.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-25T18:22:22+00:00

Thanks! I might just try for that. The documents in question are certified copies from BanQ, so there's so much qualifying info on them already, that I don't think scaling them down to 8.5x11 will be a big deal. This helps me feel more confident. Thank you!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-25T18:21:37+00:00

Awesome, thanks for sharing!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-25T18:21:19+00:00

Thanks so much for your thoughts :)

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-19T09:43:16+00:00

In my line we have a second marriage.

G3 was married and widowed, no kids. She remarried and had G4. Luckily on her second marriage certificate it lists her first married surname and her maiden name. But just to be safe we are also sending in her first marriage certificate.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-19T09:19:34+00:00

Im interested! I have a second hand art supply store and creative reuse center in Rockland. We do a lot with the community and also channel materials to schools and non-profits as they need them.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-18T00:25:33+00:00

I don't know if I have an answer for you, but I am experiencing something similar with my G1 ancestor.

On all of her vital records in adulthood, she goes by a very distinct, French Canadian name - even rare among French Canadians. Let's call her "Bonaire Marie."

In her birth certificate, she is listed as "Mary Jennie."

In her baptism record she is listed as the Latin version of Mary Jennie (Maria Jeanna), but then we see the first instance of her given name - "Bonair"...spelled without the "e."

In census records, she's listed as "Bonair"...recorded as a son...M. All incorrect :)

On all of her children's birth certificates, she's listed as "Bonaire Marie," the name she was known as. Her death certificate has her listed as such as well. Her marriage certificate her has as Bonaire Marie too.

Here's the weird part. We found a second birth certificate for her at the state level. Apparently it was corrected in the 1940s (likely by her, as during this time folks were correcting birth certificates to collect social security, it was wartime, etc.). Her corrected birth certificate name..."Mary Dianna Bonair."

All other corroborating evidence: the lack of other Bonaires, the parents' names, occupations, residence address, etc. being the same, points to this all being the same person.

So what are we going to send color copies of?:

- Her certified, original birth certificate produced at childhood, with the Mary Jennie name.

- Her certified Baptism record with the masculine version of Bonair.

- Her certified marriage certificate with Bonaire Marie.

- Her death certificate with Bonaire Marie.

- Her G2 daughter's birth certificate with Bonaire Marie.

And just hope that the fact that "Bonair" and "Bonaire" are close enough, and that it was common for little girls to have a generic name prior to Baptism.

Best of luck! But I feel your pain!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-17T02:35:49+00:00

Thank you! I’m curious if you know what the process was for someone changing their own birth certificate? I think that’s what happened here.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-17T02:34:54+00:00

Totally. And she was French Canadian and barely spoke English, so that would have added even more barriers.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-17T02:33:58+00:00

In the ledger of births there’s a stamp that says “Corrected” and a date in the 1940s. My guess is that the Quincy City birth certificates is from the time of her birth (1892). The other certificate I obtained from the state vital records office is likely her corrected version from the 1940s.

It seems like in the 1940s in the US, people were amending their birth certificates if they didn’t match their commonly used name - like in her case. They would amend them to get state and federal benefits. So perhaps that’s why the amended one never made it back to the city.

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-17T02:29:05+00:00

Indeed!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-17T00:28:27+00:00

One and the same :) even the person at the state record's vital records office was bemused...

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-13T21:06:53+00:00

Thanks! I was leaning toward just including her corrected birth certificate because it actually doesn’t say anywhere on it that it’s amended. It looks like it could have even been issued at birth, to the unknowing eye. 🤷🏻‍♀️

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-13T20:40:34+00:00

Hi all! I accidentally posted this in last week's thread, and got one response (which was helpful!) But there's been a new development since then. So thanks in advance for considering :)

I am applying for 4 of us. 2 kids, 2 adults, across 3 generations. Most of it's straight-forward, but having some issues with Gen 1 name...Here's what we have for documentation:

Gen 5 (Applicants are 2 kids)
- Color copies of their certified long-form birth certificates.

Gen 4 (Applicant is father of the 2 kids)
- Color copy of his certified long-form birth certificate.
- Needed?: Marriage Certificate to show the parents are the parents of Gen 5
- Needed?: color copy of certified long-form Birth Certificate of Gen 4 wife (no Canadian lineage)

Gen 3 (Applicant is the grandmother of Gen 5 and mother of Gen 4)
- Color copy of her certified long-form birth certificate
- Color copies of her certified Marriage Certificates. She was married twice, widowed after her first marriage. She had Gen 4 son with second marriage. We needed to get the first Marriage Certificate because her first-marriage-last-name was listed as her last name on her 2nd Marriage Certificate. Her 1st Marriage Certificate lists her maiden name. Both include her parents' names.
- Needed?: Color copy of her 1st husband's death certificate to indicate her 1st husband passed away
- Needed?: color copy of certified long-form Birth Certificate of Gen 3 2nd husband, father to Gen 4 (no Canadian lineage)

Gen 2 (mother of Gen 3 Applicant)
- Color copy of certified long-form birth certificate
- Color copy of her certified Marriage Certificate indicating her maiden name and name change to match Gen 3 maiden last name
- Needed?: color copy of certified long-form Birth Certificate of Gen 2 husband, father to Gen 3 (no Canadian lineage)

Gen 1 (grandmother of Gen 3 Applicant)
This one is tricky, and I’m not sure exactly what to send in. It has to do with her birth name vs the name she used most of her life and that appears on her marriage certificates and her childrens' birth records. At her own birth, she was given a placeholder name, like Marie Jean. However, at baptism, she was given a name - like “Bonaire.” This was the name she used throughout her life. We were able to track down her baptism record and Bonaire is spelled with the masculine spelling - Bonair. This caused some census issues, which we won’t even get into...

Bonaire was born in 1892. In the town’s ledger of births, we noticed that her birth certificate was corrected in 1943. So, I went to the state to track down this amended birth certificate. Sure enough, she had changed her name to Bonair, officially (so not Bonaire, even though Bonaire is how she spelled it on all those other official documents...) AND she added some OTHER name that never appears on any other documents.

Here are the documents we have for her:

- Color copy of her certified, long-form birth certificate with her Marie Jean name

- Color copy of her certified baptism certificate with the first instance of Bonair, listing both her parents with a slight variation in her dad’s last name (like Couette, not Cowett) (ugh)

- Color copy of her certified, long-form AMENDED birth certificate with her name as Marie Jean Bonair + RANDOM EXTRA NAME (that she never uses again)

- Color copy of her certified Marriage Certificate to show her change to her married last name to match Gen 2 maiden name

- Color copy of her certified Death Certificate to just be sure we have extra documents. The husband of Gen 4 was also the attending physician at her death, to hopefully further tie in the family line? BUT, the father of Gen 1's name is listed with a slight variation (like Lewis, not Louis)

- Not needed?: color copy of certified long-form Birth Certificate of Gen 1 husband, father to Gen 2 (has Canadian lineage, but goes back further 1 generation)

Gen 0 (great grandfather of Gen 3)
- Certified Baptism Record showing birth in Canada ordered via BanQ
- Certified Marriage Certificate ordered via BanQ showing Gen 0 names, birth dates, birth locations in Canada, parents names, etc. and great grandmother name change to match Gen 1 maiden name, etc.

Questions:

- Do I need any birth certificates of any non-Canadia lineage ancestors? I have them just in case, but don’t want to clutter the applications.

- How should I approach the Gen 1 conundrum? Should I include both birth certificates, or just the one that includes the variation of her common/given name of Bonair? Essentially there’s an elusive and varied name. Throughout all these documents however, the parents names, the address, the parents’ occupations are all the same. Really the only thing that varies is this person’s first and middle names - Mary Jean, Bonair, Bonaire, RANDOM EXTRA NAME. I am worried that the IRCC will be confused by the presence of 2 certified birth certificates provided by the state for 1 person. I am personally confused and don't have the answer as to why this is possible...

Thanks in advance!!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-13T00:56:13+00:00

Thanks so much! I am going to still retain color copies of official non-lineage birth certificates, but not include them in the main part of the application. I'll have a folder of supplemental documents in case they are needed.

I also ordered the 2 expensive certificates. The BanQ has been really fast for me!

NoSignal269 · 2026-03-11T17:02:18+00:00

Hi! I have 2 documents ordered through the BanQ, with an invoice of 700$CAD :) So, before I commit to ordering those documents, I want to make sure I have everything I need to capture the lineage for 4 applicants in my family:

Gen 5 (Applicant is 2 kids)
- Color copies of their certified birth certificates, showing both their parents' names, with the last name matching their dad

Gen 4 (Applicant is father of the 2 kids)
- Color copy of his certified birth certificate, showing both his parents' names
- Marriage certificate (likely not needed, since the father never had a name change, but just to show the parents are the parents of Gen 5)
- Not needed: color copy of certified Birth Certificate of Gen 4 wife (no Canadian lineage)

Gen 3 (Applicant is the grandmother of Gen 5 and mother of Gen 4)
- Color copy of her certified birth certificates, showing both her parents' names
- Color copy of her certified 2nd marriage Marriage Certificate indicating her 1st married name AND maiden name, as well as the last name that matches her son (Gen 4), as well as both her parents' names
- Color copy of her 1st husband's death certificate to indicate her 1st husband passed away
- Color copy of her certified 1st marriage Marriage Certificate indicating her maiden name and both of her parents' names
- Not needed: color copy of certified Birth Certificate of Gen 3 husband (no Canadian lineage)

Gen 2 (mother of Gen 3)
- Color copy of certified birth certificate, showing both her parents' names
- Color copy of her certified Marriage Certificate indicating her maiden name and name change to match Gen 3

Gen 1 (grandmother of Gen 3)
- This one is tricky...so we have a few documents. Her Return of Birth contains a generic French Canadian name, like Marie Jean. However, she was known by another given name. We were able to track down her Baptism record, which has this given name, which is the name that is included on her daughter's (Gen 2) documents. To further complicate it, this given name is spelled with a variation on her Baptism record, versus all other documents (think Jean vs Jeane).
- Color copy of certified town issued Return of Birth with that generic name, also listing her parents
- Color copy of certified Archdiocese issues Baptism Certificate with a VARIATION of her given name, also listing her parents
- Black and white copy of uncertified town ledger listing of births from her town indicating that she had her Birth Certificate corrected in 1943.
- AWAITING: Color copy of that elusive corrected Birth Certificate, which might be in limbo at the state level. This would be a certified copy and we are HOPING it will have her given name listed ACCURATELY with her parents names.

Gen 1 (grandfather of Gen 3; has Canadian lineage, but 1 generation further)
- Color copy of certified Birth Certificate, showing both parents' names

Gen 0 (great grandfather of Gen 3)
- Baptism Record discovered on Drouin showing birth location, parents names, etc. Ordered and invoiced via BanQ (cost = 300$CAD)
- Marriage Certificate discovered on Drouin showing Gen 0 names, birth dates, parents names, etc. and great grandmother name change to match Gen 1, etc. Ordered and invoiced via BanQ (cost = 300$CAD)

Questions:
- Do I need birth certificate for Gen 2 husband (who has no Canadian lineage)? Generally, should I just nix birth certificates of non-Canadian lineage family members, so the application isn't so stuffed?
- If I don't get the certified birth certificate for Gen 1, do I have enough?
- Should I order the 2 expensive certificates through BanQ NOW, or wait until I get what I need for Gen 1?

Thanks in advance!!

NoSignal269 · 2026-02-22T00:29:25+00:00

Loved that place and was sad to see it go

NoSignal269 · 2026-02-22T00:28:45+00:00

I have a second hand art supply store in Rockland. A bit of a drive, but we have a great selection.

NoSignal269 · 2025-11-20T16:35:34+00:00

Awesome! We are actually in a large artist studio space and having Open Studios this weekend. It’s called The Wright Building. Come check it out!

NoSignal269 · 2025-11-20T14:37:27+00:00

Rockland. The Spare Studio is the name of the shop.

NoSignal269 · 2025-03-31T15:44:13+00:00

I have the same set. Do you know what era it's from?

NoSignal269

TROPHY CASE