If you have a Canadian ancestor somewhere in your family tree, you might not need to look very far back. A landmark change to Canadian citizenship law means that for millions of people, especially Americans, that ancestry could now open the door to a Canadian passport. And the person who can help you find that door is a genealogist.
This week Gerry sits down with Sheila Hobeck, professional genealogist and founder of Kinalytic, based in Oakville, Ontario, to walk through what Bill C-3 actually means, how to document your Canadian lineage, and why DNA is rewriting family histories that paper records tried to keep buried.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
What Bill C-3 actually changes: effective December 2025, Canada eliminated the generational limit on citizenship by descent, meaning a Canadian ancestor anywhere in your history, if you can document it, may be enough to claim Canadian citizenship
Who counts as a lost Canadian and why historical acts stripped citizenship from individuals through marriage, birth abroad, and other circumstances that Bill C-3 now addresses
How to start the process through IRCC, when to bring in a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, and when the situation calls for an immigration lawyer
Where genealogists search, from Ancestry and FamilySearch to physical archives and historical societies, and why not everything has been digitized
The role of DNA in confirming lineage, identifying unknown relatives, and uncovering what Sheila calls NPEs, non-paternity events, where documents and biology don't match
How AI is helping translate old records written in Quebec French, Latin, and paleographic script, and point researchers toward the right archives
Why this matters beyond immigration, and what your ancestors' risks and journeys reveal once you start digging
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