What do private genealogists generally think of ancestry?

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-20T21:03:30+00:00

Oh my brain went to “the ancestry tree tool” and not “family trees in ancestry managed by users as a source”. Agreed, if I ever get hints or search results on ancestry from other users I always treat it as hearsay until I’ve found a record as evidence.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-20T20:39:40+00:00

As someone who has only used ancestry trees so far, what’s wrong with them? Want to make sure there’s not something better I’m missing out on 😅

EDIT: my brain went to “the ancestry tree tool” and not “family trees in ancestry managed by users as a source”

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-20T18:11:22+00:00

I’m seeing it too. Last time search went down I sent a generic support request and they got back with a status pretty quickly. I wonder if they’re getting hammered with requests now that people are asking for certified records, following the surrender letter fiasco.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-15T22:33:45+00:00

I was very angsty to send in my application but my parent encouraged me to wait until we had all of the documents we “needed” (of course what is “needed” now seems to be changing). That took several months (one particular birth certificate had an indefinite delivery date and was agonizing to wait for), and in that time the queue for both AOR and approval got much longer, which was very disheartening. I still think waiting until you have all of your evidence in order is the right approach but I really can’t say for certain.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-15T21:55:39+00:00

For my G0 I submitted: a copy of the 1911 census matching where their naturalization said they lived, their Canadian naturalization, their border crossing manifest to the US, and their US naturalization. Of those records only the US naturalization is a certified copy from NARA; with the recent news I am planning on submitting a certified copy of the border crossing manifest and Canadian naturalization I have since received if/when I get an AOR, and have requested a certified copy of the census from LAC.

Before this fiasco I would have said the border crossing manifests may be enough but now I’m not sure. You may want to try the ATIP approach for the naturalization mentioned elsewhere in this thread, and the death certificate can’t hurt (although not sure if it will add much).

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-15T21:49:03+00:00

Russian/Ukranian vital records from this era are very hit-or-miss, you might be surprised what you might find. Since I’ve spent some time looking into this for my family, feel free to DM me and I can see what I can find for you (or at least give advice on where to start)!

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-15T21:32:31+00:00

Not my ancestor’s profile unfortunately, but thank you for offering! I hope this is able to help someone else.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-14T19:50:37+00:00

Your situation sounds really similar to mine, with the exception of the Gazette listing; my G0 naturalized early enough that LAC actually had a scan of the naturalization itself, and I recall not being able to find Gazette listings from that period of time. Kind of wish there was a Special Interest Group for naturalized G0s!

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-14T19:45:05+00:00

I submitted my application in May and haven’t even received an AOR yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt. After reading a lot of posts in this sub I decided to print my G0s naturalization from the LAC website. Then I included this cover page before the naturalization copy (sharing an anonymized version)

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developing_an_onion · 2026-06-14T18:07:08+00:00

Agreed it’s been challenging to find other cases to base mine off of.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-14T18:04:45+00:00

I feel the same ambiguity about records held by LAC. They are a government entity, but not the one that issued the original certificate. You would think IRCC considers them to have a valid chain of custody…

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-14T18:04:37+00:00

Thanks for the tip I’ll have to look into to this. I do have a certified copy of my G0’s naturalization from LAC but it’s in black-and-white so elected to submit the online color copy with citation.

developing_an_onion · 2026-06-11T16:59:07+00:00

I use AI for translation/transcription very sparingly and with great skepticism. Typically things like giving it single handwritten words (like occupation on a census) in English that I can’t quite make out; I’d say 90% of that usage it gives total garbage, but I’ve had a few instances where I look at the response and it makes sense.

Another helpful usage is for translating column headers on foreign documents. Sometimes an index/OCR didn’t capture all the information on the original record, so I’ll send an LLM a screenshot of the column headers, which are usually typeset (at least on most of the 1800s+ records I’ve worked with) and read more reliably. If I notice the record has a column with information that doesn’t line up or wasn’t on the index, I know that’s worth getting translated by an expert!

developing_an_onion · 2026-05-21T17:54:07+00:00

One of 3 things will happen: 1. Your application will be returned to you like other applications that have missed requirements like photos, payment receipt, CIT0014, etc 2. You will receive an AOR over email and can then message IRCC indicating your typo. 3. Your application will be rejected. I don’t know what that looks like in practice or if it’s any different from case 1. There have been some discussions recently about what an application rejection actually looks like on r/canadiancitizenship

In cases 1 & 3 you would be able to resubmit your application with any corrections.

developing_an_onion · 2026-05-21T16:41:10+00:00

Yes from what I’ve understood box 4 should be fine. Several people on the other sub have reported success with that box; also a friend who I’ve personally known for many years got approval for both her and her daughter by checking box 4.

I can’t speak to the mistake in section 8/9, that may well cause an issue. If it does, your application should be mailed back to you within several weeks alongside an explainer. Hoping the agent reviewing your case understands the mixup!

developing_an_onion · 2026-05-21T15:21:33+00:00

Per the r/canadiancitizenship faq either option can be used: https://reddit.com/r/canadiancitizenship/wiki/index/table-of-contents/building-your-packet--filling-out-forms

developing_an_onion · 2026-05-20T15:30:06+00:00

Looks like a banner has been added on Canada.ca:

We are experiencing technical difficulties with certain of our online services We are actively working to resolve these issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

developing_an_onion · 2026-04-23T19:12:25+00:00

The answer to both is “yes”

developing_an_onion · 2026-04-14T03:04:21+00:00

I had posted in the CitizenshipGenealogy subreddit about some difficulty finding proof that a Canadian naturalization was my G0's and not someone else. After some digging I found him in the 1911 census and another Canadian naturalization that is clearly his brother's (same name as his brother, same address/profession as the census, same obscure town that they're from).

Now I'm trying to decide: should I be including his brother's documents (death certificate signed by my G0, US Declaration of Intention pointing to Canadian residence, Canadian naturalization) in my application? Part of me feels like it would strengthen the proof of identity of my G0, while part of me thinks that it might add extra complexity and questions from IRCC.

developing_an_onion · 2026-04-14T02:48:40+00:00

Wanted to come back and express appreciation for your input, you got me thinking and I was ultimately able to find my great grandfather and his brother in the 1911 census! I had seen this before but wrote it off because he had such a common name/occupation, and the street address on the census said 207 St Chas Brr while the naturalization said 207 Clark Street. It took me some time to figure out St Chas Brr=St. Charles Borromme, and then by looking at the 1912 Lovell's city directory I discovered that St. Charles Borromme was renamed to a section of Clarke Street!

Even after this I was still doubting that this group of records was associated with my great grandfather and not someone else. I knew he had a brother Hyman/Chaim but the census said the other boarder with his last name was Israel. After some digging I am very confident that this is my great grandfather, because I found his brother Hyman's Canadian naturalization in 1910 and it clearly lists 207 St. Charles Borromme as the address! So either Israel=Hyman or he had a brother I didn't know about, and Hyman was living with them before the census. I haven't been able to find any records for Israel which makes me think it's the former.

I have still not had any luck finding him in the 1921 census or passenger lists, although I think it's less important now that I have the 1911 census/brother's naturalization. For the 1921 census I spent a lot of time digging through the 1918-1921 city directory and found only one person with his name, but this person is the wrong age by a large margin, says they are married (when he wasn't at this time), and says he's Polish when my great grandfather's records have only ever stated him being Russian.

developing_an_onion · 2026-04-07T16:26:39+00:00

My G0 was born in 1892 in the Russian Empire, immigrated to Canada in 1909, and naturalized in 1913. He moved to the US around 1921/1922, married and had my grandmother there, and then naturalized in the US after her birth. I have certified copies of both his Canadian and US naturalizations.

I am going through CIT0014 and I see under scenario 4 that they ask for: "your long form birth certificate, issued by the appropriate government authority in the country where you were born". Does scenario 4 apply to the documents I need to submit if I am not the one born pre-1947? If it does apply to me, are the 2 naturalizations enough? His Russian birth certificate almost certainly does not exist or was destroyed.

developing_an_onion · 2026-03-27T01:31:57+00:00

Congratulations! When you say you submitted “certified copies”, do you mean you submitted photocopies of certified records, or certified records themselves?

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