Ken Schmahl has lived in the United States all his life, but his roots are firmly in New Brunswick.
He remembers hearing stories about the farm his grandmother grew up on in Johnville, 15 kilometres outside Florenceville-Bristol, and has spent time researching his family’s New Brunswick history.
So it was a joyous occasion when he received a phone call from his daughter last December.
“Hey dad, do you know what Canada just did?”
What Canada had just done was pass a new law which extended citizenship eligibility to scores of people whose ancestors were born in Canada, including Schmahl.
Soon after Schmahl reached out to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick for help locating his grandmother’s birth record. He wasn’t the only American to do so.
‘Be … in this place’
The change in citizenship law has meant a surge of requests from Americans for birth records at the provincial archives.
“So the old slogan, ‘be … in this place,’ if they can prove that they were in this place through descent, then they are eligible to become Canadian citizens,” said Joanna Aiton Kerr, the provincial archivist.
Aiton Kerr said the calls started coming in December of last year and haven’t slowed down since.
WATCH | Why a change in citizenship rules created a deluge of requests at the Provincial Archives:
Citizenship rules change leaves archivists busy
Last December, » Read More
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