User Manual

This app helps you track every birth, marriage, and death document required for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate application that runs through a chain of up to five generations (Great-Grandparent / Canadian anchor → Grandparent → Parent → Applicant → Child of Applicant). Your progress is saved as you go.

1. Key concepts

• Generation labels. The anchor relative is labelled G0. Their children are G1-A, G1-B, and so on. The children of G1-A are G2-AA, G2-AB, etc., and the children of G2-AA are G3-AAA, G3-AAB. If a G3 applicant has children, they're G4-AAAA, G4-AAAB, and so on. Sibling letters are assigned in the order you add the children.
• Person. A row in the family tree — one relative. Each person has a name, dates (birth / death / marriage), spouse name, a four-box quick checklist, and a set of "required documents" they personally need to supply.
• Catalog document. A specific document from the IRCC requirements list (e.g. "Official long-form marriage certificates"). Each generation has its own catalog organised by situation (Birth / Marriage / Death). You decide which catalog entries apply to which relative.
• Required document. A catalog entry that you've selected for a specific person. Required documents are the ones tracked in the progress tab.

2. The four tabs

Tab	Purpose
Family Tree	Five rows (G0 → G4) with every relative as a pill. Open person details or jump to their document selector from here.
Documentation Progress	Every required document across the family with status pills and a percent-complete bar at the top.
Relatives	Hierarchical builder for adding / naming / removing relatives.
Help	This manual.

3. Recommended workflow

1. Open the Relatives tab. Type the anchor relative's name in the G0 field and click Save.
2. Add the G0's children (your grandparent generation, G1). Click each + Add child (G1) button. Repeat to add as many children as needed.
3. For each G1, add their children (G2). For each G2, add their children (G3 — usually you, the applicant). If applicable, add G4 children of the applicant. Save names as you go.
4. Switch to the Family Tree tab to confirm everyone appears on the correct row.
5. For each person, click the dark-teal name pill to open their detail page and fill in DOB / DOD / DOM / spouse and the quick checklist.
6. For each person, click the pink Check Documentation pill and select every catalog document that applies to them.
7. Switch to the Documentation Progress tab. For each document listed, click Detail to record where you'll apply, the cost, certification requirements, dates sent / received, and status.
8. Watch the progress bar climb as documents get marked complete.

4. The Relatives tab

This is the only place to add or remove relatives. Each person row shows three controls:

• Name input + Save. Type a name and click Save. The pill on the Family Tree updates immediately.
• + Add child. Inserts a new child at the next generation. The button label tells you which generation (G1, G2, G3, or G4) will be created. G4 people don't get this button because there's no generation below them.
• Remove. Deletes the person AND every descendant of theirs AND every required document attached to any of them. You'll be asked to confirm. The G0 anchor cannot be removed (the app needs one anchor at all times).

5. The Family Tree tab

Read-only-ish view of who's in the application. Five labelled rows, one per generation. Each relative appears as a pill split into two halves:

• Dark teal half (their label + name). Click to open the Person details page for that relative.
• Pink half ("Check Documentation"). Click to open the Check Documentation page for that relative.

If a row has no relatives yet, you'll see a reminder to add them in the Relatives tab.

6. Editing a person's details

The Person details page (reached by clicking a name pill on the Family Tree) lets you record:

• Full name and spouse's name.
• Date of birth, date of death, date of marriage.
• A four-item quick checklist: Birth / Baptismal / Marriage / Death certificate. This is a coarse "do I have it in some form?" indicator; the detailed per-document tracker lives in Check Documentation / Doc Detail.

Click Save to commit and return to the Family Tree, or Cancel to discard your changes.

7. Marking required documents (Check Documentation)

This page shows one multi-select dropdown per situation (Birth / Marriage / Death), populated from the document catalog for that person's generation. Examples:

• The G0 (Canadian Anchor) birth dropdown includes seven items, from the Canadian birth certificate through Landed Immigrant records.
• The G1–G4 birth dropdowns are short and the same: long-form birth certificate, hospital records, accredited DNA test, and the sex/gender marker statutory declaration.
• The death dropdown holds only the official death certificate (and is hidden entirely on the G3/Applicant page since the applicant is alive).

Select every catalog document that applies. To pick multiple in one dropdown, hold Ctrl (Windows / Linux) or ⌘ Cmd (macOS) while clicking. When you click Save selections:

• New selections become required documents with default values (applied = no, obtained = no, cert_type = none).
• Documents you previously selected but have just deselected are removed — along with any progress you'd recorded for them.

8. Filling in a document's details

From the Documentation Progress tab, click Detail next to any required document. The detail page captures everything you need to actually obtain the document:

Field	What goes here
Where to apply	The issuing agency or registry, e.g. "Service Ontario", "BMD General Register Office (UK)", "Library and Archives Canada".
Method of application	How you submit the request — online portal, mail, in-person, etc.
Cost	Free-text (include currency) — e.g. "$35 CAD" or "£11 GBP".
Application address	The mailing address you'll send the application to. Multi-line text.
Certification required	One of: None, Original government issue, Notarization, Apostille. Affects when the document counts as complete — see §10.
Date application sent	When you mailed / submitted the request.
Date document received	When the document landed in your hands.
Notes	Anything else: tracking numbers, follow-up calls, contact names, etc.
Status checkboxes	Applied, Obtained / received, and (only if cert type is notarization or apostille) Certification complete.

9. The Documentation Progress tab

One card per relative, grouped by situation (Birth / Marriage / Death). Each required document shows status pills:

• applied — you've sent off the request.
• received — the document is physically in hand (or the digital equivalent).
• certified — only shown when the document needs notarization or an apostille; lights up when that certification step is on file.
• DONE — the document satisfies its completion rule (see §10).

The progress bar at the top of the tab counts every required document across every relative. The percentage is complete / total × 100.

10. How "complete" is calculated

A document is complete according to its certification type:

Certification required	Document counts as complete when…	Cert pill shown?
None	Obtained / received is checked.	No
Original government issue	Obtained / received is checked (the original is its own certification).	No
Notarization	Certification complete is checked.	Yes
Apostille	Certification complete is checked.	Yes

The progress percentage reflects exactly this rule and updates the next time the Documentation Progress page is loaded.

11. Storage, export, backup, and restore

Where your data is saved. In this version, your data is saved on the web server. The same data appears whenever you sign in, from any browser or device. You don't have to worry about a single browser losing it.

Export. Open the Relatives tab and click Export JSON. Your browser will download a file named something like citizenship_tracker_YYYY-MM-DD.json containing every relative and every document detail you've entered.

Back up. Save the exported file somewhere outside this tool — cloud storage (Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive), an external drive, an emailed copy to yourself. Repeat the export every so often as you add information, and certainly before doing anything risky like a Reset.

Restore. Open the Relatives tab and click Import JSON. Pick the file you saved earlier. You'll be asked to confirm before all current data is replaced.

Reset. The Reset everything button on the Relatives tab erases every relative and every document. There is no undo — export first if you might want the old data back.

The exported file is compatible with the standalone version of the tracker, so you can move data between the two. (The standalone covers a few extra situations such as adoption that this version doesn't track; those entries are skipped on import here.)