u/BearCubTeacher

When digging around my ancestral home in Cacouna, Québec, on Google Earth, I stumbled upon a road with my family surname! It’s clearly related to my family name, as many generations lived there (and still may?) long ago, though the road’s current name was officially recognized in 1980. I suspect it’s always been called that name for many, many decades if not centuries. My surname is two French words that when combined into my family name, lose the “e” on a word that would otherwise be there for the proper adjective use of the word with the feminine noun that it modifies. And, they would typically be two separate words in language use. My surname combines the two words and gets rid of the “e”.

So, on the Québec website that gave some basic information on the road, the “Origins” of the name were listed as basically, “unknown”. But there was as link to provide information to the governmental department in charge of such matters to share with them if it was relevant to the origin of the name.

I wrote them (translated from English to French-Canadian via AI) and gave them the list of my paternal ancestors who lived in that town, as recorded on so many of the documents I gathered for my citizenship certificate.

I received a reply from a historian from the agency. They gave me a link to that road website and indicated that they had changed the “origins” for the road name. And now it lists its name is based on a local family name. Pretty cool. I’m going to take a picture of me standing beneath the road sign when I get there and share it with all my family.

As of 3/6/26 I have officially been certified as a Canadian, from birth, due to a Canadian law that changed in Canada on December 15, 2025, and now proudly fly the flag of Canada at home. As I drive around Santa Rosa, I’ve seen several flags that are flying the maple leaf and I have to wonder if there is any group of Canadians in the Santa Rosa area that have an kind of social events/activities/meetups?

For anyone curious, the law that changed was done so to rectify some old carried-over British/European citizenship laws that were very misogynistic in practice and essentially didn’t allow citizenship to be passed down to children through women, but did for men. The amendment C-3 recognized citizenship rights to anyone, essentially, who has had a Canadian citizen as an ancestor. My great-grandfather was born in Québec, as were many of my ancestors before him, back to around 1625 when m original Canadian ancestor relocated from France. To receive a citizenship certificate, an application must be filed with the Immigration Refugees Citizenship Canada (IRCC) along with a $55 USD processing fee and proper documented civil records, and photos/IDs of the applicant, to show positive proof to that Canadian ancestor. So now I have dual citizenship with the USA and Canada. I have no plans on moving to Canada, but it’ll be easier to travel there with my new Canadian passport when that time comes.

Even if there isn’t any kind of Canadian club, I know there are Canadians here in Santa Rosa- I’ve seen your Maple Leaf flying on Guerneville Road and Occidental Road too! So, how about it? Canadian roll call, please!!!

Update: I see there’s an ad in this thread now that is for an Immigration attorney making mention of the new C-3 law. One does NOT have to hire an attorney to do this application and many have done so without any legal help, but with help from others who’ve been through the process. I know of several, online folks, who’ve paid thousands to an attorney and have gotten nothing out of that process. So, please, if you’re looking to get confirmation of your Canadian citizenship, visit r/CanadianCitizenship on Reddit before you hire an attorney to do that work for you.