Searching the 1851 Census of Canada West Agricultural Schedule - Ancestry Version

One of the greatest challenges when trying to find your ancestors in the Ontario land records, whether those records are found within the Ontario Land Registry Access System (OnLand), on FamilySearch in the county Land & Property collections, or in the Ontario Township Papers on FamilySearch is to find them on the ground with a concession and lot mentioned

I tackled the challenge of looking at the 1861 census of Canada in "A Challenge: 1861 Census of Canada - Agricultural Schedule" and locating the agricultural schedule on the Library and Archives Canada site.

However, the 1851¹ census of Canada West also has a surviving Agriculture Schedule. So how about we see what we can do to find the concession and lot for someone listed in the 1851 census who resides in a rural area.

In this post we are going to do the search using Ancestry². In a future post we will use the free census collections on Library and Archives Canada to look for the same information. In this exercise our subject will be my 4th great-grandfather, Alexander Fraser. He arrived in 1816 in Upper Canada, settled in the Perth Military Settlement, and died in 1862.

The first challenge is that we want to find him with his family in the 1851 census. We don't want to be distracted or confused with other enumerations so step one is to bring up the 1851 census of Canada West. On Ancestry we can do that by searching the Card Catalogue. On the top menu bar in Ancestry click on "Search" and then select "Card Catalogue" from the list of items to search in.

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca showing the Card Catalogue item in the Search options.

Once the search screen for the Card Catalogue appears enter in "1851 census canada west" (without the quotes) in the Keyword(s) search box and click Search. You will hopefully see a screen similar to this.

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca showing the keywords and search result for looking for the 1851 Census of Canada West.

Click on the 1851 Census of Canada West, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia title to bring up the search page for that census. In the search screen that is presented just fill in the information as usual. In this case, Alexander Fraser living in Lanark, Ontario, Canada is enough to find him in the population schedule of this census.

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca showing the search filters used to locate Alexander Fraser in Lanark, Ontario, Canada in the 1851 Census of Canada West along with the first five results returned.

I happen to know from previous research that there are two Alexander Frasers living in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Canada West and mine isn't the Esquire. 

As an aside...those "Jeans" and "Traser" surnames? Yes they are actually "Fraser" once you review the image of the census enumeration page but the transcriptions have a little bit to be desired in their accuracy. Some of them, those with the pencil mark beside them, have had corrections submitted and accepted by Ancestry as alternate info.

1851 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Canada West, Lanark County, district 19, sub-district 180, p. 9, Alexander Fraser and family; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 May 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-11732.

Here we can see the household of my Alexander Fraser in the 1851 census of Canada West. His surname in this case is transcribed as "Traser" It is sometimes useful to know who the neighbours are to make sure you are looking at the right person in the agricultural schedule. In this case they are John Hunter and Evin Griffith.

At least we know that the family is "on the ground" so to speak in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Canada West. Now we can look for them in the agricultural schedule of that census. 

To search for the head of household in the agricultural schedule it is just list the previous search. In the search box only put in the first and last name, the location the family was residing, and finally add the keyword of "agricultural" and tick the check box for the Keyword to be exact.

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca showing the search filters used to locate Alexander Fraser in Lanark, Ontario, Canada in the 1851 Census of Canada West Agricultural schedule.

Since we know that the transcriptions are a challenge in this enumeration the other surnames seen, Jeans and Traser, are also added to the "last Name" search box.

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca showing the search filters used to locate Alexander Fraser in Lanark, Ontario, Canada in the 1851 Census of Canada West Agricultural schedule along with the first four results returned.

You might notice that, unlike the population schedule, there are no birth years or birth places listed. This makes sense since that information isn't recorded within the agricultural schedule.

There are only two entries in Drummond Township, where we found them in the population schedule, and we also know that the Esquire isn't the Alexander we are looking for so that leaves us with "Alexander Jeans".

1851 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Canada West, Lanark County, district 19, sub-district 180, p. 39, Agriculture schedule - Alexander Fraser; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 May 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-11732.

There he is on line 32 surrounded by John Hunter and Evin Griffith, his neighbours we saw in the population schedule. From the schedule we can see that on 12 Jan 1852 he was residing on the 2nd Concession, west half of lot 12 in the Township of Drummond in Lanark County, Canada West. He also had 100 acres of land on this property with 50 acres "under cultivation" broken down with 38 acres of it under crops and 12 acres as pasture.

What can we do with this information?

How about:

• Locate the land transactions within the OnLand Historical books and record the instrument numbers
  
• Find copies of the land transaction instruments on FamilySearch to learn about how the lot is described, from whom it was bought, and later, to whom it was sold
  
• Check the Ontario Township Papers on FamilySearch for possible additional records
  
• Road trip!

For me, the last option was the most fun. Being able to stand on, or at least near, the land where my ancestor worked provided that intangible connection to him and his family.

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1. Although the 1851 census of Canada East and Canada West actually took place on 12 Jan 1852 I will still be referring to this as the 1851 census.

2. During this COVID-19 pandemic many libraries have been able to offer access to the library version of Ancestry from the comfort of their patrons' homes. If you don't have your own subscription to Ancestry see if your library is offering access to their edition. Note that the Ancestry links I am using are for the personal edition but the process works also in the library edition.