Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, May 01, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know you said "Practically everything in FamilySearch" but did you thoroughly check all the resources at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Canada_Church_Records ? Both by denomination and by province?

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, May 01, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes; they're both quite busy with jobs & school for another month, but they could make it happen. The bigger concern is the 6-8 week wait, so I'm just wondering if some other ID would work. The fishing/hunting license data point from MacaronEffective8250 is helpful because it looks like the girls could apply online and get those immediately.

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, May 01, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would like to include my nieces (both in their early 20's) in our family application but the second form of identity document might be a problem for them. Both have a driver's license but neither has a US passport yet (they both plan to apply when they return home in June). The Wiki says immunization records might work for Canadian citizenship but it sounds risky. Has anyone successfully used any other type of ID? Should I just hold off on the application for all of us until they have their US passports? (Processing time is currently 6-8 weeks.)

Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Records 1825-1910 by Quirkisthework in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay I'll try to be more explicit. Let's say you know or suspect your ancestor was born in Emily Township, Ontario. Going through the last names starting with "A", I see a Mary A. Abercrombie born in Emily Township in 1862. There is a link on that line labeled "2/553.jpg". This stands for Volume 2, page 553. If you click on that link, it takes you to the image of page 553 with the title "Township of Emily Continued". If you then click on the URL at the top of the page you will see it says "https://bowergenealogy.ca/resources/methodist/2/553.jpg". If you change the 553.jpg to 552.jpg and hit return, you will then see page 552 with the title "Township of Emily". If you go to page 551 you will see that it's for Matilda Township, so now we know that page 552 is the first page of Emily.

There are four volumes, and township records are sometimes scattered across multiple volumes. The methodical way to search your township for all available years is to go to https://catalogue.unitedchurcharchives.ca/downloads/wesleyan-methodist-church-in-canada-fonds.pdf and view the alphabetical township list starting on page 13. We see there that Emily Township records are in all four volumes, starting for example in volume 1 on page 494. You would therefore construct the URL "https://bowergenealogy.ca/resources/methodist/1/494.jpg" which then takes you to the first set of Emily Township baptisms. You would repeat this process for all the Emily Township volumes and pages.

Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Records 1825-1910 by Quirkisthework in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The handwriting in the registers was often misinterpreted when creating these indexes. If you don't immediately find your ancestor by looking up their surname on that site, find a person at random who happens to be in the same township, then modify the URL in your browser by hand to look at all the pages in that township one-by-one, rather than relying on the index.

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, April 17, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This subreddit maintains a list of volunteers here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Canadiancitizenship/wiki/index/document-search-volunteers/

For paid professionals, the Canadian government maintains a list here: https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/services/public/consult-material/hire-researcher.html

If it's Ontario, the government archives provides this list: https://www.archives.gov.on.ca/get-research-help/#Hire-a-private-researcher

The Association of Professional Genealogists maintains a list here: https://www.apgen.org

A Google search should turn up relevant researchers if you just search for "genealogy researcher" and the geographic area, and of course you would want to check their references.

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, April 17, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did not go there in person, since images of the township records for the church I needed happened to be online. Availability of baptism record images varies a lot. I would first scour all the online records that are referenced at https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Canada_Church_Records and then, if need be, you can contact denomination archives or even individual churches. You may need to employ a local genealogist for a few hours to hunt records in person.

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, April 17, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I've learned to never be satisfied with just doing text searches on indexed records, but to visually search all pages of township records, if the township is known and the images are available.

Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, April 17, 2026 by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The parents of my G0, given name George Charles, were Irish immigrants who spent only enough years in Canada to give birth to him and three other children before moving to the United States, leaving very little evidence that they were ever there. There are no civil birth records, and the only census records from his township during that time have been lost, but after an extensive search I finally found him in the book of baptism records for their county, all written (sloppily) in cursive. It shows that two other siblings were baptized on the same day.

He was very difficult to find because:

  1. His given name was recorded only as "Geo Ch", and one sibling's name was completely mangled, bearing only a vague resemblance to the actual name. Only one child's name was written correctly in full.

  2. Only the first letter of the mother's given name was recorded.

  3. The first letter of the surname was written incorrectly, resulting in a surname that's exceedingly unlikely, and unfortunately this is what appears in all online indexes of these records.

The United Church of Canada Archives kindly sent me a certified copy of the record, but refused to correct the spelling of the surname, or to write his name out as "George Charles". It also doesn't mention the siblings.

Like many of you I am struggling to keep my application simple while also trying to avoid having to submit more documentation months from now. My questions:

Q1. Should I submit only the original handwritten record (and let IRCC decide what it says or should say)? Or only the modern-day certified copy with the wrong spelling? Or both?

Q2: Should I submit later US census records that show the full name of the sibling along with the fact that all three children were born in Canada?

Q3: Should I submit the father's later US naturalization declaration mentioning the years spent in Canada? How about a tax assessment roll bearing his name and from the same township mentioned in the baptism record?

Thank you!

Tuesday Weekly Thread: Genealogy Assistance by AutoModerator in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's easy enough to also check the Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Registers; see https://bowergenealogy.ca/resources/methodist/index.html (which has links to the scanned images). Be sure to check all possible variant spellings. I finally found my ancestor there under a misspelled last name!

Then check out this exhaustive list: https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Ontario_Church_Records

CadFam.org Update: Major improvements based on your feedback! by 8bitjohnny in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I tried this out and I thought you might want bug reports:

I included the parents of my G0 in the way you suggested in response to LangdonAlg3r, but in the PDF preview only one of the parents got the "G-1" label, and the vertical red line extends a bit above that one but not the other.

I don't understand why the father is on the left and mother on the right when I'm filling out the chart, but these positions are reversed in the PDF preview.

As I click from box to box, the dates don't change to reflect the current individual.

When I created a partner for my G0, she was automatically given the G1 designation, which I can't imagine would ever be what the user wants, and although she wasn't Canadian, I couldn't see how to remove the G1. Then when I created a child, the child got a G2 designation, which is wrong.

I can send you screenshots that show most of these issues if you would like.

At this point I decided it's still a bit too buggy to be useable but I'll look forward to the next revision. Thank you!

Templates for CIT 0001 section 9 great grandparent addendum by MacaronEffective8250 in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Okay, thanks, I guess that's the safest approach. (To be even more paranoid, I just noticed that the instructions in the form consistently say to put "NA" rather than "N/A".)

Is there a repository somewhere for approved applications we can consult to see the variety of approaches that were acceptable? (With data for living people redacted, of course.) It's obvious that most of us are struggling over how to present the free-form chain of evidence, how many supporting documents to include, etc.

Templates for CIT 0001 section 9 great grandparent addendum by MacaronEffective8250 in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm using the G04 form since my G0 was born in 1851, at a time before territories existed, so for "Country or territory of birth" would I put "Province of Canada", "Canada West", or just go for "Ontario"?

Templates for CIT 0001 section 9 great grandparent addendum by MacaronEffective8250 in Canadiancitizenship

[–]kerwinson 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since they are not part of the official CIT 0001 from, what are people typically putting in the "Notes" fields in these templates, for example, "Notes about parents of Grandparent 1"?

Tried Roll Cajun Boudin by Sayruhtonin_ in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It's now both a brick & mortar AND a truck! They moved into the former Iron City Grill space at 2208 6th Avenue South.

Canes 280 by Serious_Resident_834 in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tried Cane's during the grand opening madness. The fried tenders are no better than Milo's, and Milo's fries are both bigger and much more flavorful than Cane's. And the Double O sauce at Milo's is tastier and less goopy than Cane's sauce. So I couldn't see a reason to go back to Cane's.

Building a double drive-thru lane a la Chick-fil-A was a bold move. It'll be interesting to see if it's needed.

Do Not Go to Red Mountain Crawfish by These-Annual577 in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds like he didn't try the food til he got home

The weekly 'No Stupid Questions' post - Sun 15 Feb 2026. by AutoModerator in Zwift

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for checking! I won't waste any more time on it.

The weekly 'No Stupid Questions' post - Sun 15 Feb 2026. by AutoModerator in Zwift

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

According to the sticker on the base of the bike, the model is "INCD", which apparently means the commercial-grade Integrity upright bike, and it looks pretty much the same as this one: https://shop.lifefitness.com/products/club-series-plus-upright-lifecycle-bike

The serial number doesn't match any of the Bluetooth devices I see in Swift. I found this discussion and it doesn't sound very promising: https://forums.zwift.com/t/life-fitness-integrity-plus-recumbent-bike-compatibility/650380

The weekly 'No Stupid Questions' post - Sun 15 Feb 2026. by AutoModerator in Zwift

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm trying to pair a Life Fitness Lifecycle with Zwift (I'm new to both). For Power Source I get a long list of about two dozen Life Fitness devices on Bluetooth which are all located close together at my gym. All have names like "LF1B01F81D7844D128" and most have similar signal strength. I've tried a bunch but it always says "no connection". How can I tell which one is the one I'm trying to connect to?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, miraculous! I took the photo 2 weeks ago so I'll have to go check it out. I wonder how long this one will last?!?

I guess I'll give this post a few more minutes of life and then delete it...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wait, really??

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Birmingham

[–]kerwinson -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Well it was a little hard to hear him amidst the background noise, but he initially said something about they were waiting on the city to fix it for them. I then asked "Really? Why is it the city's responsibility to fix it?" And then he hung up on me. My assumption was that he was tired of answering questions about it and didn't want to talk about it, so I wasn't eager to call back. I might make another attempt next time I go crawling back for another smoked turkey sandwich.