Canadian Census Records

Canadian census records began in 1851.  Enumerated were the entire family including ages, religion, place of birth, gender, etc.

The census was taken every ten years, 1861, 1871, etc.  One unique feature of the 1901 census was the inclusion of full birthdates.  But remember, it is only as accurate as the person who provided the information.  Ontario has a great birth record collection found on Ancestry.com and this can confirm or dispute a birth date found in a census.

If you want the 1861 census for Prince Edward Island, you won’t find it.  Prince Edward Island didn’t join Canada until 1873 so 1881 is the first year it was included in the Canadian census.  The area including the present day province of Manitoba and west were known as the Northwest Territories and entered the Canadian union in 1870.  As a consequence some census records should be available in 1871.  Gradually, provinces were formed and ultimately absorbed more territory leaving the area currently known as the Northwest Territory.

My opinion is that few U.S. citizens are as familiar with the Canadian provinces as Canadians seem to be of US states.

The following list is a guideline to aid in Canadian research.  It may help to answer the question, “When my family went west, was it to a province?”

According to Wikipedia four provinces entered the Canadian confederation July 1, 1867:  Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  Manitoba joined July 15, 1870, British Columbia July 20, 1871, Prince Edward Island July 1, 1873, Saskatchewan and Alberta September 1, 1905 and Newfoundland and Labrador March 31, 1949.  Keep these dates in mind to avoid frustration when beginning a census search.

http://www.censusfinder.com/canada-census-records.htm is a good source for searching the Canadian census or at least its indexes.

Invitation

I’ve introduced some of the basic sources of family history or genealogy research in the United States, and will continue to add descriptions of possible sources; however, it is my goal to be of actual help.

Consequently, if anyone faces a brickwall, please comment on the blog so that I can attempt to address that challenge.

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Where has the 1890 US Census gone?

While the United States has taken a census every ten years since 1790, the 1890 census is missing.  In 1921 a fire destroyed a part of the census and water and smoke damaged most of the remainder. 

This leaves a twenty (20) year gap, almost a generation, a different brickwall.  There are several ways to fill in some of this “gap time.”  One approach is searching state census records. 

For example, Kansas took a state census every ten years beginning in 1865 and ending in 1925.  These would provide two opportunities to fill in the “gap years.”  Other states that offer state census records for this period include Minnesota, Iowa, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Oregon, Indiana, Washington and Wisconsin.

State and territorial census are available both earlier and later.  Researchers can search the internet for the states needed to see what is available.

Where Has My Family Gone?

One of the frustrations researchers face is not finding family in the census when they absolutely should be there.

Breath deeply and don’t worry. 

Think of alternative spellings for the surname.  How might a census taker have misspelled the surname.  For example, Henry Yanowine of the 1850 census became Henry Yenowine in the 1860 census.  I found no Henry Yenowine in 1870, but a P H Yenowine in the 1870.  The Y of the 1870 session looked similar to the cursive letter G.

Search surname with approximate birth year.   For example, when I couldn’t locate Henry Yenowine in the 1870 census, I could have searched for a male “Yenowine” born about 1835.

Search for other family members.  Often family moved in tandem so finding a sibling might lead to the family your seeking.

Search a different census year.  If these tricks don’t yield your ancestor, look for him or her in the census ten years later.  The missing census could have been such poor quality that it was impossible to read.  The family could have simply been missed in the census.       

Census: an Invaluable Pool

A population census is an excellent tool to find information about families and breaking through brickwalls.

In the United States census taking began in 1790 and has continued every ten years.  In Canada population census began in 1851 and was also taken every ten years.  In England population census began in 1841 and continued every ten years.  Because of rights of privacy, the United States does not open the census to the public for seventy years.  As a consequence, the 1940 census in only now being made public.

There is a significant volunteer effort to index the 1940 census at FamilySearch Indexing.  Anyone interested can download a free program and then view a page of the census and fill a table with specific information from that page of the census.  The indexer’s work is checked against a second indexer and discrepancies are arbitrated.  Once the work of indexing a state is complete, it becomes searchable.

The US census from 1790 through 1840 included only the names of heads of household and then numbers indicating males or females within specific age ranges.   The following example is from Somerset county, Pennsylvania.

Beginning with 1850, all members of the household are listed along with gender, age, race and place of birth by state or country.  Sometimes occupation was listed as well.  Each succeeding census asked new questions.  By 1880 the place of birth of both parents is provided.  By 1900 the month and year of birth are given as well as how many children the mother has had and how many are still alive.

Census records provide interesting information, but it is not necessarily accurate.  Consider the census a great guideline and tool to find additional information.

Some challenges found when searching the census are missing family members, incorrect ages, and different names.  For example, in the 1880 an eleven year old child might be listed who wasn’t in the 1870 census.  Theoretically, the child should have been one in the 1870 census.  A couple of possibilities might answer this dilemma:  first, he or she was really only ten in 1880 and had not been born at the time of the 1870 census; or second, the child was an infant and was omitted from the 1870 census.  Unlike the recent census that was mailed to households, historically a census taker (enumerator) would walk from household to household collecting information.  If the family wasn’t home, it was possible a neighbor might have provided the information and only estimated ages.

The census will be an invaluable tool for research.

Family History or Legend

Where is the first source of family history?  Relatives.  Ask family questions.  The bias has always been to ask the oldest living female in the family, but it is a bias.  Sometimes the younger children inconspicuously overheard their parents or other relatives talking and gleaned unique bits of information. 

Often relatives deny knowing anything or say they can’t remember.  In this age of Alzheimer’s disease and memory dimming illnesses, we may be losing some valuable resources prematurely.  Nevertheless, don’t hesitate to ask questions in a different way.

Rather than, “do you remember when your grandfather died?”, how about asking, “How many grandparents did you have when you were born?” or “How many of your great grandparents were alive when you were born?”  Sometimes these bits of trivia will come to mind.  If you know when the relative you’re talking with was born, you have learned that certain grand or great grandparents were still alive and know their death date is likely after the birth of your source.

Always ask about places.  Dates are often tough to remember, but places might come to memory more easily.  For example, a relative didn’t remember when another ancestor passed away, but thought he had been buried in the Swan Point Cemetery in Rhode Island.  At the time a letter to Swan Point confirmed the location and then provided the dates.  Now much of the information is found online.

Don’t hesitate to ask relatives about family traditions, gatherings etc. 
A type of food often cooked can suggest family ancestry.  For example the making and eating of lefse likely denotes some Norwegian ancestry.

If family legend says that cousin Jacob came out to the California Gold Rush, don’t discount the information, but start doing some research in California.  If there is thought of a prominent ancestor, using his or her name in quotation marks, search the internet to see if there may be a family tie. 

Family legend can help demolish brickwalls and enrich history.

The Family History Hobby

Why has family history or genealogy grown as a hobby?  Why do we want to know about our ancestors?

Family history can be both interesting and fascinating giving the researcher the opportunity to be a detective.

Ancestors feed into who we are both genetically and in other ways.    So Genealogy helps us know who we are.

Others choose family history to find lost family members or seek ancestral connections to a specific heritage, such as Native American.

With the introduction of computers the search has been made far easier.  Family records were often kept in Bibles which had pages for births, marriages and deaths.  In the 19^th century, information was likely transmitted by letter.  By the mid part of the 20^th century, travel became more available and the zealous and affluent were able to visit sites where their ancestors lived or died.  Visiting county courthouse archives invited the truly passionate to search ancient volumes. 

More recently many of those records were microfilmed and researchers were able to visit Family History Centers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and view microfilm from many areas at one center. 

Now many records are online with indexes making finding ancestry often quick and inexpensive.  Some great sites include Ancestry.com, Find-a-Grave, Familysearch, US GenWeb, and specific county historical society sites.  Many cemeteries have records online.  Some states have death certificates online or indexes to vital records.  Even with all this, every family has its brickwalls—those connections that seem to end with great, great grandmother Mary who died young.  Brickwalls are both great detective challenges and frustrations.

In short, family history and genealogy have become more accessible.  Perhaps as families now live farther apart are brought together by family history.

Tracing Families Forward

Often we run into brick walls and can’t determine who an ancestor’s parents are.  Unfortunately, this all too frequently happens with women when no record of a maiden name was kept and the period of her life precedes the strong keeping of vital records.

Don’t hesitate to trace each child of the family forward.  Information from one of the descendants may provide the key to the missing ancestor's identity.

Occasionally, in early American naming practices, the oldest son typically was given the paternal grandfather’s first name, the second son the maternal grandfather and the third son the father’s first name.  In the event that you find two likely candidates to be the parents of an ancestor, review the sons’ names and begin your focus with the ancestor similarly named.  I find many imperfect examples of this in my family history:  Johan Leonard’s son Peter named his oldest son John and his second son George.  George may be the first name of his wife’s mother—but I don’t know, that is one of my brickwalls.

Sometimes when tracing a family in the census, we find all the family parents and their married children living in the same general locale in one census, for example the 1850, but by 1860 some of those married children appear to have moved away.  Search the 1860 census for those names in other states.  Families often migrated in similar patterns or as church groups.  In western Pennsylvania there were large congregations of Church’s of the Brethren in the early 1800s through the 1850s.  As their posterity grew, the land in the area did not, so groups migrated in tandem to various western states, like Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, where land was available for settling.

Sometimes when tracing forward various families in the census, one will find an aged parent or grandparent living with descendants, which helps to tie generations together.