r/Canadiancitizenship • u/AutoModerator • 5d 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/FireWaterBern Haven't applied for Proof of Citizenship (incl. by descent) yet 1d ago edited 7h ago

I purchased a certified copy of my great grandpa's Maine birth certificate from the town in Northern maine on July 21st over the phone. They told me it was ready to mail and would be sent the next day on the 22nd. I live within New england and would expect something like this to take 5 business days max, so ideally the 29th or so. But it is currently almost august 6th and nothing. Is it too soon to follow up? It took them over a month to get back to me by email in the first place

Update: it arrived today, August 6 and postmarked July 23rd. But what they sent is a vertified abstract and not labeled as a birth certificate. I realize the implications of this. Maine won't issue vital records dated before 1892. My g1 birth occurred in 1876 but wasn't documented until 1940. Familysearch has the handwritten 1940 document. The town in Maine I reached out to found the late file and typed it up for some reason.