Genealogy: Canada: Censuses
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Click on this button to perform the query. You may also perform the query pressing the enter key while in any text input field, or by the key combination Alt-Q.
The Census of 1861 covered the Colony of Canada, which was divided into two provinces: Canada East and Canada West, often referred to anachronistically as Lower Canada and Upper Canada, the names they used when they were separate colonies. The choice, if desired, is made using the selection list.
At present there is no data for Canada East.
Each of the provinces was divided into Census Districts which corresponded to the cities and counties into which the provinces were divided.
If a Province is selected then the District selection list is populated with an alphabetical list of the census Districts.
The Count field permits specifying how many records are to be displayed at at a time. The default is 20 records.
Each census District, generally the same as a County, was divided into census Sub-Districts, each conforming generally to a City Ward, Town, or Township. The selection list of sub-districts is populated when you select a District.
Larger census sub-districts were further divided into enumeration divisions or wards to try and balance out the workload for the enumerators. The selection list of divisions is populated when you select a sub-district.
Each page of the 1861 population census contained room for 50 individuals. It is anticipated that the user will choose to search an individual page only for the situation when the entire page, all 50 individuals, are the desired target set. Therefore selecting a specific page within a specific enumeration division ignores the Count field so that all rows of the page are displayed and changes the default sort order to display the records in the order they appear in the original.
The Given Names field is used to specify text which is matched against the given names of individuals in the database. This search is done as a case-insensitive pattern match, not a simple comparison.
Specifying simple text, comprising letters and spaces, matches against any names containing that text. "John" or "john" or "JOHN" will match "Johnathan" and "William John" as well as the simple "John".
The text may be a regular expression. There are too many options to enumerate here, but a few examples include:
The Surname field is used to specify text to look for in the surname of individuals. If the value contains only letters and spaces then only names that match exactly (except for case) are found. Otherwise this uses the same pattern matching as described for Given Names. For example to match surnames starting with "McL..." and ending with "...n", such as "McLean", "McLain", "McLennan", or "McLellan" you could specify "^McL.*n$".
The meaning of this field changes if the Soundex option is selected.
The Soundex code has been used for decades to attempt to match names that sound similar. For example it is used by police forces to perform a rough match for the names of drivers. It is a problematic tool, as it is based upon the phonetics of British surnames. If you select this option along with a complete surname, not a pattern match, in the Surname field, then the search is made for surnames that "sound like" the given surname. For example specifying Soundex together with "McLean" will match all of the surnames in the pattern match example under "Surname", but many other names as well, such "McCallum", "McAllan", "McClain", and "McWilliams".
The Soundex code has been used for decades to attempt to match names that sound similar. For example it is used by police forces to perform a rough match for the names of drivers. It is a problematic tool, as it is based upon the phonetics of British surnames. If you select this option along with a complete surname, not a pattern match, in the Surname field, then the search is made for surnames that "sound like" the given surname. For example specifying Soundex together with "McLean" will match all of the surnames in the pattern match example under "Surname", but many other names as well, such "McCallum", "McAllan", "McClain", and "McWilliams".
Select the Sex field if you only want to look for male or female individuals.
Select the Marital Status field if you wish to restrict the search based upon the marital status of the individuals.
The Occupation field is used to search for individuals based upon their listed occupations. This is again a pattern match. For example searching for "Labo[u]{0,1}rer" will match any occupation that contains either "Laborer" or "Labourer", including "Farm Labourer" and "R'y Laborer".
The Birth Place field is used to search for individuals based upon where they were born. This is a pattern match. For example searching for "Canada" will also match "Canada East", "Canada West", "Lower Canada", and "Upper Canada".
The Residence field is used to search for individuals based upon the contents of the Residence column. This column was used by the original enumerator to record the location of a member of the household who was not resident at the time of the census. Since that was rare, the column is almost completely unused in the original. The database therefore contains location information from the agricultural census, enclosed in square brackets to indicate that it is not present in the original image of the schedule of the living. This is a pattern match. For example searching for "Canada" will also match "Canada East", "Canada West", "Lower Canada", and "Upper Canada".
The Religion field is used to search for individuals based upon their religious affiliation. This is a pattern match. For example searching for "Meth" will match any religion containing that string, including "Wesleyan Methodist", "C. Meth.", "New Connexion Methodist", and "Methodist Episcopal".
The Residence field is used to search for individuals based upon the text in the column labeled "Residence if out of bounds". This is a pattern match. This field is understandably very infrequently used by the enumerators since it is defined for members of a family who are not currently residing with their family. To minimize wasting this column I have added information from schedule B about the address of the property on the line for the head of household. This information is enclosed in square brackets to indicate that it is not present in the original population census image. Note that if you wish to search for lines containing square brackets you have to escape them because square brackets are part of the regular expression language. For example to search for records where the Residence field contains "[con 2" you need to specify "\[con 2" in this option.
The Birth Year and Range fields are used to search for individuals based upon their approximate birth year as calculated based the age. If Range is not specified then the Birth Year must match exactly, but you can use Range to perform an imprecise search.
Note that the Age in this census is how old the individual would be at their next birthday after the census. The probable reason for this specification is to avoid ages less than 1 year old. As a result, and because the census was enumerated in the spring, the calculated birth year is 1852 minus the age.