Ancestry

I thought I read somewhere here that someone had ancestors in N. Ireland, which allowed them to get a visa/passport? I also hired a lawyer to look into citizenship and I thought she mentioned that too?  My ancestry is scotts/Irish French/Canadian. My mom has done some researching and says that I have relatives from England. Is this an avenue I can pursue?

In terms of UK citizenship (England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland), it can only be passed down to one generation born abroad, so unless one or both of your parents is a British citizen, you will not have any claim to UK citizenship.

For Irish citizenship, I believe it can be passed down through two generations, so you might have a claim to Irish citizenship if you have either a parent or grandparent who is an Irish citizen.

I don't know much about the French citizenship laws, but doing a quick online search, it looks like you might only be able to claim French citizenship if one of your parents is a French citizen.

If you're looking into the Ancestry visa for the UK, that is a visa that is only available to Commonwealth citizens who have a grandparent who was born in the UK, so you will not be able to qualify for it unless you hold citizenship from a Commonwealth country (i.e. Canada) AND one of your grandparents was born in the UK (See: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/uk-ancestry/).

I think my grandfather was born in Ireland around 1912... Anyways, the link didnt say anything about generations, it just said "grandparents" and before 1922. So that's vague in terms of the grandparent statement. To me it would seem any grandparent born there before 1922. Maybe I'm splitting hairs?

My father and his parents were born in N. Ireland and my mother's parents were born in England.  I was born in Canada but had lived in the USA for most of my life.  I was able to get a UK passport as British by descent because of my father.  I also have a Canadian passport and a relatively new US passport (just got my US citizenship in April).  I haven't bothered with an Irish passport yet

I was really lucky in the paperwork area - I was researching visas to be with my UK BF (now husband) and people here helped me realize I was also British.  Also I think because 1)it is my father who was British otherwise than by descent and 2)he was married to my mother and 3)I was born before 1983 - I didn't have to do anything but get a UK passport.  I know some other people have to register first or file a UKM and do a citizenship ceremony.

I didn't involve a lawyer and the whole thing was really easy.  I filled a form online to get a birth certificate for my father from N. Ireland.  We had his original but it was in tatters and he has passed away so I was able to file for it directly to me.  Mom had their marriage certificate still.  I was a little worried about my own birth certificate because Quebec had reissued all birth certificates from certain years so it looked a bit weird - but it was all ok and I got the passport about 2 weeks after sending off the application.

Since I was also Canadian I think I could have gotten an Ancestry visa if I had needed.  I was super lucky in my situation and I am getting a lot of teasing from my DH that I am so stressed out about other people's visa problems - esp the huge long wait for FLR(M). 

I think my grandfather was born in Ireland around 1912... Anyways, the link didnt say anything about generations, it just said "grandparents" and before 1922. So that's vague in terms of the grandparent statement. To me it would seem any grandparent born there before 1922. Maybe I'm splitting hairs?

You should qualify with just one grandparent born either in Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland before 1922. You will have to have a copy of the birth certificate. You shouldn't need a lawyer for Irish citizenship (registering your birth abroad) or for the Irish passport. It's fairly straight forward. See http://www.citizensinformation.ie or my "How I became Irish" www.londonelegance.com/transpondia/usuk/hibi.html

For birth certificates in the ROI:
Office of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Government Offices
Convent Road , Roscommon
Phone: (011) (353) 1 6711000
Fax: (011) +353(0) 90 6632999

For NI: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk

As for grandparents born in Great Britain, this will not work if you were born in the US (Canadian born descendents would qualify).

It appears my great grand parents that we're from there, so I'm still SOL.