# Build the documentary chain

Citizenship by descent is proved by an **unbroken chain of records** from the
applicant up to the qualifying ancestor. Each parent-to-child link needs a birth
record, most links need the marriage record that ties the couple, and the qualifying
ancestor needs the record that establishes their citizenship. This guide turns the
user's family line into an ordered, concrete gathering plan.

## Method

1. **Get the line.** If you can read the user's EasyPassport workspace, use their
   family tree: the applicant, the line up to the qualifying ancestor, each person's
   known facts (names, birth, marriage and death events, places, citizenships), and
   the gaps their eligibility result flagged. Otherwise ask the user for the line, or
   use the gaps listed in an EasyPassport eligibility result if they have one. The
   gaps tell you what is *missing or unverified*; that is your priority list.
2. **Lay out the links, applicant first.** Walk from the applicant up to the
   qualifying ancestor. For each generation write the link (for example "Applicant ←
   mother Maria ← her father Giuseppe [qualifying ancestor]").
3. **For each link, name the record or records that prove it:**
   - The **child's birth record** (proves parentage and the parent's name and place).
   - The parents' **marriage record** where the regime requires it (many descent
     lines and older legitimacy rules turn on marriage).
   - The qualifying ancestor's **birth record** and their **citizenship evidence**
     (for example the origin-country birth record proving they held citizenship at
     emigration; the "naturalization check" guide covers whether a later foreign
     naturalization broke the line).
   - **Death records** where a consulate requires them to show the line's
     continuity.
4. **Mark each record's status:**
   - ✅ **Have it**: the user already holds the document, or it is recorded with a
     source in their tree.
   - 🟡 **Need to obtain**: the event is known but no document is on file.
   - ❓ **Missing fact**: the date or place is not even known; the user must find that
     *before* they can request the record.
5. **Order the work.** Prioritize (a) links flagged as gaps, (b) the qualifying
   ancestor's records (the spine of the case), then (c) the intermediate links.
   Within each, resolve ❓ missing-fact items first (you cannot request a record you
   cannot identify), then 🟡 obtain items.
6. **For each 🟡 item**, use the "country record playbook" guide for *where and how*
   to get that record in the country that holds it, and the "records request letter"
   guide to compose the request.

## Output

Give the user a **numbered checklist**, grouped by ancestor. Each item shows the
record, the person and the event date and place, its status (✅, 🟡 or ❓), the
country that holds it, and the next action. Lead with the one or two items that
unblock the most of the chain. End with a one-line summary of how many links are
already covered and how many are outstanding.

## Rules

- **Describe the chain, don't rule on it.** You lay out which records prove which
  links as general guidance; you never declare the user eligible or ineligible. An
  eligibility check, and ultimately the authority, does that.
- **Never assume a generic parent-to-grandparent shape.** Lines can be deeper, and the
  qualifying ancestor may be a great-grandparent. Work from the actual line.
- **Everything you produce is a plan for the user to check.** You do not change their
  family tree or their eligibility result.
- **Privacy.** Only use details about living relatives that the user chooses to
  share, and never pass a person the user asked to keep private to a search or a
  third party.

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General guidance, not legal advice. EasyPassport is a document-organization tool, not a law firm. Confirm your own case with the relevant authority or a qualified professional.