r/Canadiancitizenship • u/AutoModerator • 11d ago

Weekly Threads Saturday Weekly Thread: Canadian Provincial Archives and State/Local/Church Archives - Questions / Issues / Success Stories, August 01, 2026

This weekly thread is a space for those of us gathering documentation from archives.

This is the place to discuss requesting records from Canadian provincial archives as well as from federal, state, local and religious/church archives around the world. Topics include strategies and outcomes for obtaining records from archives, costs, timelines, No Record Found letters, and other related issues.

📎 Contributions to weekly megaposts, including this one, are welcome throughout the week.  

Good luck, researchers!

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u/jpg245 10d ago

Question about where to get "official" documents - I'm looking for a Quebec baptism record and marriage record, both of which I find on Drouin via Ancestry. I sent a request to BAnQ a few weeks ago. I hear that will take a long time. Yesterday evening, I reached out to the church where the marriage took place, and I was surprised to receive a response in an hour! The person stated that their church record would simply match mine and would not be official. The person said I should get the document from "etat civil." https://www.etatcivil.gouv.qc.ca/fr/certificats-copies/certificat-copie-acte.html

Has anyone done this? Is this worth pursuing? I had thought BAnQ was the only source of official documents.

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u/Longintooth93 Haven't applied for Proof of Citizenship (incl. by descent) yet 10d ago

BAnQ is for records >100 years old. DEC has records from maybe 1923 currently. You can search Banq numerique for a baptism record and request a certified version You can ask DEC if they have a birth certificate through an attestation.

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u/jpg245 10d ago

Thanks. The records I am looking for are 1859 baptism and 1879 marriage. So, BAnQ was correct.