A Canadian Family

Canadian Census Resources – at your fingertips and free-of-charge!

CENSUS DOCUMENTS IN CANADA

Are you looking for a relatively easy way to learn a little bit more about your ancestors?

You’ll be happy to learn that some of the richest sources of information are census records and that many of these are available online and free-of-charge.

Depending on which census you consult, you may find your ancestors’ birth dates, ethnicity, language, occupations and/or religion. You can also study their household’s overall composition (e.g. large or small family units, single or multi-generational) and the makeup of the neighbourhoods they live in (e.g. ethnicity, occupations). Finally, if you compare census data from different years you may notice trends that cross the generations (e.g. decreasing family sizes, increasing urbanization).

New to genealogy? Then a note of caution is in order – there are many errors in census returns. Errors could be made by your ancestors (especially if they were illiterate), by the census takers (especially if they spoke a different language) and lastly – if you are using indexes – many errors slip through when the original records are being indexed. Indexes are great and we owe a tremendous thank-you to everyone who has worked on them – but once you’ve found your ancestors there’s nothing better than looking at the original (microfilmed) records for yourself.

So what about the census in Canada?

The first census in what is now Canada was taken in Nouvelle France by Intendant Jean Talon in 1666. There were more than 30 censuses during this French period. These are not the focus of this article, but if you are looking for information about this early period – especially for what concerns Acadia, then you can find information in Lucie LeBlanc Consentino’s article Acadian Census Records

Once the British took control they began with their own census of 1765.These continued periodically until the first Canadian national census which took place in 1871 just four years after confederation. In this modern period we’ve had one Canadian census every ten years (i.e. 1881, 1891) until 1956 when the government increased their frequency to every five years to reflect the increasing pace of change.

At the beginning of this century census documents were difficult to consult. Understandably, curators didn’t want people touching the originals so a solution was found – microfilming – and people could now consult these at certain libraries. This was a boon to genealogists, nevertheless access was still a challenge until the internet came along and different organizations began to post digitized images and/or indexes online.

So, which modern Canadian censuses are available at your fingertips and free-of-charge?

Automated Genealogy – Indices Canadian Censuses 1851/1852 – 1901 – 1906 – 1911

Family Search – Index Canadian Census 1881

Have fun!

March 12, 2009 - Posted by Evelyn Yvonne Theriault | . | census, Genealogy