Citizenship by Descent [View all]

Yesterday, I handed over my file of certified birth and death certificates tracing my link to a Canadian great grandfather on my father's side, to my oldest son, who is going to pursue the new citizenship by descent for me and both himself and his brother. My great grandfather was one of eight children born to parents who immigrated to Canada from England in the early 1800's. My great grandfather came to the US in the 1880's, but when he died he had his remains buried in the family plot in an Anglican cemetery in Ontario. He was joined there by my father's brother, who returned to live in Canada in the late '60s before he died.

While I doubt that I will start over in a new country at my age (75), one never knows. My oldest son--who is taking the applications forward from here--and his partner have joked with each other for some time about when they move to Canada. My son works for an international software company that has an office outside of Toronto and he currently works from home anyway. His partner also works from home. They've been together for over a decade, so the partner will need to apply for the family visa, once my son successfully obtains citizenship by descent. While they both would prefer to remain in the US, it's beginning to look a lot more likely that they might actually move to Canada. My youngest son's partner is a tenured associate professor at UNC Chapel Hill who also apparently is eligible through his family for citizenship by descent, but they are less likely to make the move at this point.

It has been fun chasing down the family tree. A Canadian cousin wrote to my father in 1966 detailing the family history, and a copy of her letter became a starting point for my research, together with some genealogy sleuthing by one of my nephews who emailed me a copy of his work 10 years ago! That nephew, with his wife and young daughter, moved to England from Wisconsin in January, having been recruited to a University professorship.

Looks like members of my father's side of the family are going to come full circle. Amazing.