In column 10 of Form 1A and Form 1B, the population schedules excluding the North West Territories, of the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931, we find an interesting question being asked: "Has this family a radio?" 1931 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 127, sub-district 77, London, p. 5, extract of columns 3-10;digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Jun 2023); citing Library and Archives Canada folder T-27278. This was the first and only time this question was asked in a census of Canada. Interestingly, this question was also asked in th ..read more

It's been a few weeks since the the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 was released to the public and people are actually starting to really pay attention to what is recorded on the pages. One question has started to pop up on the various Facebook genealogy groups summarized along the lines of: What do the letters written between the birth places of the father (column 16) and mother (column 17) mean?   1931 Census of Canada, Ontario, district 126, sub-district 16, Grantham Township, p. 1, extract of columns 15-17;digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com ..read more

As I keep digging deep into the Seventh Census of Canada, the one started on June 1, 1931, additional resources are starting to appear to make it just a little bit easier for us to find our kin. On Friday, June 9, 2023, Ancestry published the first public version of their name searchable index for the 1931 Census of Canada. This index was created by Ancestry's Handwriting Recognition software. Of course, as with any transcription, there are challenge with reading the handwriting. So what if you can't find your ancestor using the name index, what else can you do? I was creating a short presenta ..read more

On June 1st, 1931 the enumerators of the the seventh census of Canada began their work throughout most parts of Canada.  Jump ahead to June 1st, 2023 and the surviving information that was gathered, the population schedule on Form 1, was now available to all who wanted to take the time to wade through the images to find their ancestors. The release of those images didn't go as smoothly as hoped since there were a number of issues with the Library and Archives Canada web site during those first two days. By the morning of June 2nd, Ancestry had finished processing and loading those same im ..read more

It has been an interesting and challenging time for all involved with the public release of the 1931 Census of Canada by Library and Archives Canada on June 1, 2023. What started with joy and happiness quickly turned to sadness and frustration for the genealogy and family history community as issues on the Library and Archives Canada site prevented many from even trying to view the images. Yet I'm not going to harp on those issues since I've already done so in my post "1931 Census of Canada - A Release Fiasco?" Instead I'm going to share my own success stories and some tips on how I found the ..read more

Let's be honest, the public release of the images from the 1931 Census of Canada by Library and Archives Canada on June 1, 2023 was a fiasco. On the surface all looked good according to their "Preparing the 1931 Census" page. Screen capture of Library and Archives Canada "Preparing the 1931 Census" web page showing "Go public" checked. At 8 a.m. ET on June 1, 2023 the 1931 Census search page was active and by 8:17 a.m. the site was already at a crawl with long delays displaying the thumbnail images of the pages and the pages themselves. Quite often it would seem like the site was sta ..read more

One of my fellow genealogy researchers sent me the following question: "I have found the 1861 agricultural census for Huron County in Canada West.  I have searched through the pages, and the only page for Stanley Township is found on page 1274 of 1274 pages.  On the LAC webpage, I tried changing the number at the end of the sequence, as you advised, and the next image says "end of reel".  Increasing the number I find a list of Townships and eventually I get an error message.  I think that probably means there are no more images. Sadly my Alexander Fraser, on lot 29, Conce ..read more

If everything works out, in under a month the Seventh Census of Canada which took place on June 1, 1931 will be released to the public on the Library and Archives Canada web site on June 1, 2023. Library and Archives Canada has been keeping us up to date with what is happening through their "Preparing the 1931 Census" page.  What Do We Know So Far? Statistics Canada transferred the care and control of the 1931 Census of Canada to Library and Archives Canada on 1 Jan 2023. The record for the archival description of the 1931 Census of Canada have been added to the Library and Archives Cana ..read more

For those of us who make use of the Library and Archives Canada web site in our daily genealogy and family history research the change to the new look and feel has been a constant challenge. Key pages which we are very familiar with have undergone drastic changes with potentially useful material omitted or they have just vanished into the aether. So what can we do? This is when we can turn to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Before we head into the Wayback Machine's copy of the Library and Archives Canada web site there are a few things to note: What the Wayback Machine has available i ..read more

Library and Archives Canada did warn us that they were transitioning to the new "cleaner" (my term) design for their pages in a phased approached. Thanks to Gail Dever and her post "New Census Search tool designed to make it easier to find family roots in Canada" at Genealogy à la carte for the heads up I found myself spending my Sunday morning and part of the afternoon playing on the new search page and writing this up. For now the old LAC census search page still exists at "Censuses" but it will be going away sometime in the future. In preparation for the day when that happens and just based ..read more