On Thursday, November 26, millions of American families will pass the same dishes and retell many of the same stories about relatives, current and past, the lives they led, and where they came from.
This year, that family history could carry more weight. It’s the first American Thanksgiving since Canada changed its citizenship law on December 15, 2025.
Under the new rules, Americans with a Canadian ancestor may already be Canadian citizens. For most Americans with Canadian roots, it’s the most direct path to a second passport. That status also brings the right to live, work, and retire in Canada — with no language test, exam, or oath. You keep your U.S. citizenship, and staying in the U.S. creates no Canadian tax bill.
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You, your siblings, and your children could also qualify through just one Canadian in your lineage.
Just one ancestor is enough
Canadian roots run wider than most families assume. Around 1900, about one in five people born in Canada lived in the United States, according to census statistician Leon Truesdell’s 1943 study, The Canadian Born in the United States. Multiple waves of subsequent immigration from Canada to the U.S. occurred in the 20th century, further widening the eligibility pool.
Just one Canadian in your direct line can make you Canadian today. Two conditions apply: your birth date has to fall before December 15, 2025, and your direct line has to reach a Canadian ancestor. The law sets no limit on how many generations back that ancestor sits.
Thanksgiving is a uniquely good time to inquire about possible Canadian roots, as you are likely to meet many of the relatives that make up your direct line of descent.
Your direct line runs from you to your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and beyond, each the child of the one before. Aunts, uncles, and cousins can’t pass citizenship to you. The ancestor at the top counts if they were born in Canada, or if they naturalized there before their next child in your line was born.
The further back you go in your family tree, the more relatives you have in your direct line who could pass on Canadian citizenship. You have four grandparents and eight great-grandparents. Six generations back, you have 64 ancestors, and one of them is enough.
To claim it, you ask Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for a citizenship certificate, which confirms your status. With the certificate, you can then apply directly for a Canadian passport. Your siblings share your line, and cousins may share the same ancestor, so one confirmed claim can help several relatives.
Fast forward to the clues that can reveal a Canadian in your family tree: Family stories · Names · Places · Paperwork
The clues in your family stories
Many of the strongest clues come from what your relatives say out loud. Summers spent “up north,” a grandparent “going up home,” and elders called Mémère and Pépère can all point to Canadian roots. Some relatives were “border babies,” born in Canadian hospitals just across the line. CIC News covered these signals in its guide to eight clues in your family history.
Your family may also have passed through Canada on the way south. A great-grandparent from Poland, Ireland, or elsewhere may have naturalized in Canada before moving to the U.S. That ancestor counts the same as one born in Montreal, provided the naturalization came before the next child in your line was born.
Your family’s recipe box can hold hints too this Thanksgiving. Newfoundland families often serve Jiggs dinner, a salt-meat stew, instead of turkey. Ontario families bake butter tarts, and families from Quebec and Atlantic Canada tend to pick apple pie over pumpkin. A dish proves nothing on its own, but it can start a conversation about where the recipe came from.
Some arrival stories run through the Underground Railroad. Black families who escaped slavery built settlements in what’s now Ontario, including Buxton, near Chatham. When the Civil War began, 70 Buxton men went south to fight for the Union, and many of them stayed. The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 says about two-thirds of Black refugees in Canada returned to the U.S. after emancipation.
If your family’s story includes Chatham, Buxton, Windsor, or Amherstburg, the key detail is a relative born there, in your direct line. These lines often reach back to the 1800s, so a lawyer’s help can make a difference.
Relatives who have already looked into this can save you time. A sibling with a certificate has done most of the work. A relative who was refused before December 2025, under the old first-generation limit, may qualify now.
At the Thanksgiving table: Many family members are treasure troves of family history in and of themselves — the oldest relative on each side of your family, the family historian, and whoever cleared out a grandparent’s house are often the best sources. Family Bibles, baptism certificates, and boxes of old papers tend to hold many of the details.
The clues in your names
Your surname may have changed when the family settled in the U.S. Leblanc became White, Boisvert became Greenwood, and Roy became King. CIC News has published 42 last names that may point to Canada.
French-Canadian families also used “dit names,” a second surname that told apart families who shared a name in the same village. An ancestor named Roy dit Desjardins could leave descendants named Roy, Desjardins, or both.
Maritime names carry signals too: Scottish names like MacDonald in Cape Breton, and Acadian names like Thibodeau and Cormier, could point towards Canadian lineage. A name gives you a reason to look; however, it isn’t proof on its own.
At the table: Inquiring about your grandmother’s maiden name, along with any other spellings of it, is often one of the most useful details a family can collect.
The clues in your places
New England holds the best-known story. About 900,000 French Canadians left Quebec for the U.S. between 1840 and 1930, according to demographer Yolande Lavoie. Many went to mill towns like Lowell, Lewiston, Manchester, Woonsocket, and Fall River.
The Maritimes sent their own waves of immigrants south. Maritimers called Greater Boston and its neighbours the “Boston States.” Steamers ran from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers, Prince Edward Islanders, and Cape Bretoners settled across the region, and so did Newfoundlanders.
Many Ontarians headed to Michigan. They worked in the lumber camps and mills of Saginaw, Bay City, and Alpena, and settled in Detroit, across the river from Windsor.
Illinois has its own French-Canadian corner. In the 1830s, Quebec-born fur trader Noël LeVasseur settled at Bourbonnais Grove, south of Chicago. He went back to Quebec to recruit families, who then farmed along the Kankakee River.
In northern Maine, the St. John Valley towns of Madawaska and Fort Kent share families with New Brunswick across the river.
CIC News has also traced Canadian roots in upstate New York, California, Florida, Greater Boston, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, among other eligibility hotspots.
At the table: You may find value in asking where your family lived before its current town, and when it moved — both these questions can narrow the search to a single migration and set you on the path to find the needed documents to prove your Canadian citizenship.
The clues in your paperwork
U.S. census takers left one of the best clues. In 1900, they asked anyone born in Canada or Newfoundland whether they were of English or French descent. They then wrote “Canada English” or “Canada French” in the birthplace column.
Online indexes often shorten the entry to “Canada,” so the original page image tends to tell you more. The label described descent, and Newfoundland births could appear under it.
Border records come next. Between 1895 and 1954, U.S. officials kept lists of people entering from Canada, known as the St. Albans lists. Despite the name, they cover crossings along the whole border. Detroit kept its own records from 1906 to 1954. Most Canadian-born travellers don’t appear in these lists before late 1906.
At the table: Many archives and genealogy services offer online record searches. FamilySearch (for example) offers both record sets free of charge. A laptop at dinner lets the relatives who remember the names help with your search.
Found a clue? CanadaVisa’s free Family Line Explorer can map your line and list the records you’d need.
What a second passport gives you
Dual citizenship is the starting point. Canada allows multiple citizenships, and U.S. law doesn’t make you choose. You keep your U.S. passport and add a Canadian one.
Taxes follow where you live. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) bases income tax on residency, not citizenship. If you stay in the U.S., becoming Canadian doesn’t create a Canadian tax bill on its own. Canada can still tax income you earn there, like rent from a Canadian property. (More on taxes and dual citizenship)
A Canadian passport also widens your options abroad. You can live and work in Canada without a permit. As of October 2026, the Henley Passport Index, which ranks the strength of passports based on their access to visa-free travel options, placed Canada’s passport seventh in the world and the U.S. passport 10th.
Through the International Experience Canada (IEC) program, Canadians aged 18 to 30 or 35* can pursue work and living options in more than 35 countries and territories around the globe, many of which are in Europe.
Your children can benefit too, and children born before December 15, 2025, can claim through you in the same application.**
Lines that run through an ancestor born before 1947, or through a relative who died before the law changed on December 15, 2025, can take more work. Documents IRCC released through an access-to-information request show it put some of these files on hold.
For lines like these, a citizenship by descent lawyer can take on the claim and prepare the application for you.
*Age limits and terms vary by country. **For a child born abroad after that date, a parent who was also born abroad needs to be able to show 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the birth.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship