Citizenship by Descent

[mnhtnbb]

13. Good luck to him!

Going back that far can be tricky because birth registrations weren't required in many US States until the late 1800's or early 1900's. I discovered that the death certificate for my great grandfather (Canadian) specified his birthplace as CANADA, but without a birth certificate for his son (my father's father), we have to rely on a death certificate. I knew he'd lived in Los Angeles--and assumed he had died there. The request for his death certificate from LA County turned up no record! I ended up writing (no on-line request function) to the California State Department of Public Health to request a death certificate because they keep vital records from all the California counties. They have a 7 week turn around time. Turned out he had died in Orange County. So, it took some work to finally get certified legal confirmation that he was the son of the Canadian.