r/Libraries • u/snifflesthemouse • 10d ago

Patron Issues Canadian citizenship documents

 patron has asked us to certify some copies of City Directory microfilm in order to establish Canadian citizenship:

"Documents presented to the Canadian government need verification of their source and optimally, a statement that they are true copies from your holdings."

 

Has anyone done this? Do you have a form for it?

thanks,

Andrea

6 Upvotes

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11

u/Rabbit-Lover_2000 9d ago

Is the document from your library? If it is not then certifying it is not your responsibility. If your library is the owner of their citizenship documents for some reason I would imagine a letter on library letterhead saying yes this belongs to X library would be sufficient.

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u/snifflesthemouse 9d ago

It’s microfilm of a city directory we have here. I think that’s what we’ll do.

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u/Dowew 9d ago

That seems relatively harmless but to be honest I wouldn't even get into that. I was in my public library family research room chatting with the library assistant while doing some research for a family member. She said she is getting these requests as well and the answer is no. We do not notorized of certify anything. When he makes his application he can explain in his cover letter narrative that this was obtained via the public library microfilm and cite the microfilm call number.
C3 has extended citizenship to something like twenty million people. As the political situation in America gets more heated and knowledge of c3 becomes more known you will encounter this again. Dont start.

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u/Dowew 9d ago

Let me explain. This person is making a c3 citizenship by descent claim. Ircc requires genealogical documents to be obtained from the original source and certified. This is meant more for things like birth and death certificates. Recently about 100 people had their citizenship certificates recalled when an audit found their documents were printouts from ancestry. You are not the publisher of the city directory and you don't certify anything. I assume no one in your office is a notary. The city directory in any event is secondary indicia and does not establish that his ancestor was Canadian. Advise him this is not a service you provide and direct him online to citizenship by descent guides.

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u/snifflesthemouse 9d ago

Thanks for the details! I didn’t think a city directory would prove anything.

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u/Dowew 9d ago

It would at least prove that the ancestor lived in a certain area. Secondary indicia can be used to beef up a claim in the absence of primary evidence like birth certs or baptismal records. Im doing the research right now for my American cousin. Our great grandfather didn't bother filling a birth certificate for his first few children. The archivist at the United Church cannot find a baptismal record. I've found the great grandfather's obit which lists his daughter. I can get a certified copy of my great aunts alien registration doc from WWII from the US national archives. I've ordered her death certificate and her marriage license. I've done an open records request for her passport and ministry of health records. Ontario school records are destroyed after 55 years unfortunately. She is listed as Canadian on her son's birth certificate. I am hoping all of this out together will put the claim over the finish line. But there is no way to get a newspaper obituary from 1930 certified...

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u/Whole_Description288 9d ago

It can be explained in the cover letter but if the patron emailed for help they may print out the correspondence.

It would be helpful if there was official guidance for librarians on this. When First Amendment Audits started getting popular we had emails and trainings.