Sub-series consists of records created and/or maintained by the Citizenship Registration Branch of the Department of the Secretary of State. The records span a range of time-periods and include a variety of forms of records. Early records in the sub-series consist of samples of naturalization certificates completed by residents of the Northwest Territories between 1887 and 1909, in accordance with the Naturalization and Aliens Bill of 1881. A sample of each form authorized under the act is included.
The sub-series also contains 30 citizenship registers from various regional Ontario offices, created between 1902 and 1978. These registers consist of lists of individuals who applied for citizenship by naturalization in the Ontario jurisdictions of Windsor, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins, Parry Sound, North Bay, Kapuskasing, Cochrane, Ansonville and Kirkland Lake. Individual entries were recorded alphabetically by surname, and include the following details for each applicant: name, address, occupation, nationality, date of filing application, date of hearing, approval or rejection of application, date papers mailed to the department, date certificate mailed to applicant, and certificate number.
One volume in the sub-series is an undated register of Canadian citizens of Japanese origin and persons claiming to be Canadian citizens who were evacuated to Japan after World War II.
Another group records in this sub-series are files of C.A. Lussier, Assistant Deputy Minister (Citizenship) Citizenship and Immigration and later Assistant Deputy Minister (Citizenship) for the Department of the Secretary of State, concerning the proposed migration of Doukhobor Sons of Freedom from Canada to Russia. These files, dated 1951 to 1974, include applications of Doukhobors for migration to the U.S.S.R., and declarations of renunciation of Canadian citizenship.
Registry files in the sub-series deal with various citizenship matters for the period 1965 to 1969. Subjects of the files include naturalization, acts and regulations, ethnic groups, embassies, consulates and the United Nations, films, displays and fairs, radio and television programmes, language and citizenship classes, travel and exchanges, human rights, field operations, and opportunities for youth.
Other noteworthy items in the sub-series include a file on Mary Pickford's application for Canadian citizenship in the 1970s, as well as applications of Prime Ministers L.B. Pearson, J.G. Diefenbaker and P.E. Trudeau for their certificates of citizenship.
