I’m genuinely curious as to how researching and verifying a person’s heritage works. I’m an immigrant and have absolutely no means of proving my own heritage, people just have to take my word for it. I don’t think my parents (boomer age) have birth certificates, or if they did, it’s been lost to multiple moves and upheavals. I remember seeing photos of my great grandparents when I was a child in my grandparent’s house but I have no idea where those photos could be now. I don’t even know their names. Obviously I’ve tried searching online for fun but places like ancestry.com mostly only has records from English speaking countries.

I really wonder how people are able to prove their heritage. It sounds like Anglo Canadians/Americans probably have more documentation that can be located because some of those records have been digitized and posted online. Whereas for indigenous communities they probably have less records but communities are also small or close knit enough that you probably may be able to find someone who may know someone or find people to corroborate stories with because they were probably in the same time and place?