The Mystery of William John Irving

[J.J.]

Thanks for the translation...  I did give you a place to ask for lookups... I found the link to the N.B. one but the whole site seems to be locked up...Either overloaded server or other problems...but when it comes up that is the best we can do for you, other than suggest you pay a researcher to do it. These people ask for gas money if that...  www.raogk.org/newbrunswick.htm  I hope you will include the date of the marriage and thank them for their time even if the outcome doesn't match your hopes

Be happy if you can find help. I used to bus it downtown twice a month to do lookups for people but I found there were often cocky replies and requests for more rather than thanks for all my free help...so now I just do it once in a blue moon for thankful sounding queries...

[wagb278]

Thanks again J.J.  I will watch for that site going active again.  I just thought someone watching this forum might live near and make occasional trips to where the microfilm is housed.

Jim

[polarbear]

You don't say where you are located in your profile but if you happen to live in Canada you may be able to arrange an interlibrary loan for this film.

Polarbear

[wagb278]

Thanks Polarbear,

I updated my profile.  I live in the USA up in the Rocky Mountains.  So, I do not have access to these, or any other, films.

Jim

[wagb278]

Naturalization Documents

A thought - might there be Naturalization documents available?  Would an immigrant to Canada in the mid nineteenth century become a citizen and documents survive somewhere?  Anyone know if such records exist, and where they would reside?

I understand that maybe my immigrant was already a British citizen (from Ireland) so maybe moving to Canada (within the Commonwealth) is not a citizenship question.  Just thought maybe ...

Of course if there were records and they were kept in Saint John, they probably did not survive the fire. But if kept at the Provincial capitol or Ottawa, etc.; maybe.

I guess the first question is - what is the citizenship status of one who moved from Ireland to Canada in the nineteenth century?  Then was he obligated to become a Canadian citizen, and if so what records of that might still exist?

Thanks,
Jim

[polarbear]

Anyone who came to Canada prior to about 1947 (yes, 1947) remained a British subject. There was no formal Canadian citizenship before this although people seem to have generally considered themselves to be Canadian b/c they lived there now.

There is more info here ....   http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-908.011-e.html

PB

[wagb278]

Thanks again polarbear. 

Just as I suspected, - darn -  and the link you provided confirms it.

Jim

[J.J.]

Did you ever ask the archives if they do any free lookups? http://archives.gnb.ca/documents/countyguides/stjohn_en-ca.pdf

Also I see you've added all our search information to your web pages. It would be nice if you gave rootschat a plug as we did all those searches for you...

[wagb278]

J. J. -

Good idea. I will add a link to RootsChat on my links page.  Of all message boards related to genealogy, RootsChat has been by far the most successful for me.  I should have thought of that myself.

Thanks,
Jim