FamilySearch + LAC = Canada, 1851 Census Success

A fellow researcher sent me something similar to the text below concerning looking up the images on FamilySearch for the 1851/52 Census which took place in Canada East, Canada West, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick:

I am researching in Family Search and all the 1851 Canada Census records. Yet all of the records for John Lane results in “No Image Available”. Am I looking in the wrong area of Family Search to find the images so I can see the information? Is there something else I should be doing?

This was an interesting question since many of us have access to Ancestry, Findmypast, or MyHeritage where the images of at least the first page with the names can be found. However, those are all commercial pay sites and not everyone has access to those resources from home. So what can we do?

With a little bit of work on our part we can combine two free sites, FamilySearch and Library and Archives Canada, to achieve the same end result.

But why use two sites when one can just use the LAC 1851 Census of Canada search page? Honestly, the census search system on LAC is, I think the polite word would be, "lacking". Their search system doesn't take in account name various spellings of a name like the other genealogy sites and the only wildcard character available is '*'. So it makes searching just a bit of a challenge. Additionally, and if I'm mistaken please someone correct me, the current index comes from the original Ancestry indexes before people submitted corrections for any questionable transcriptions.

To search just the "Canada Census, 1851" on FamilySearch go to the search page at https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1325192.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Canada Census, 1851 search page with More Options selected and John Lane born in 1811 in Ireland filled in.

On that screen click the "More Options" button so that additional details such as where someone was born can be included up front. In this case I'm looking for a John Lane born in Ireland in 1811.

As an aside and before anyone asks, as far as I am aware I'm not related to this family. I'm just using him as an example.

A whole bunch of John Lane's appeared in the search results since I didn't give an end date for his birth year but the one I'm looking for is the John Lane residing in Otonabee, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. When I click on his record I get the following details:

Screen capture of the Family Search Canada Census, 1851 page for John Lane born 1811 in Ireland and residing in Otonabee, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.

As we can see in the upper left corner it states "No Image Available". But in the details section there are actually some important pieces of information we can use to search for the census image he can be found on in the 1851/52 census of Canada using the LAC Census of 1851 search page. We need to record the following from this FamilySearch page:

• District Number
• Sub-District Number
• Page
  

Since this census took place is before there was a Dominion of Canada we also need to record the province and that we can get from the "Event Place (Original)". Note that we're not writing down his name or age. They aren't important in the search we will be doing on the LAC page.

So for this John Lane we need to write down:

• District Number: 30
• Sub-District Number: 295
• Page: 79
• Province: Canada West (Ontario)

One gotcha which you might notice later on the LAC Census of 1851 search page is that FamilySearch lists the Sub-District Number and then the District Number while the LAC search page asks for the District Number and then the Sub-District Number. So if you are doing this either late at night or before your first cup of caffeine in the morning you just might do like I've done in the past and mix up the order of the District and Sub-District numbers.

The next step is to go to the Library and Archives Canada search page for the Census of 1851 at https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1851/Pages/1851.aspx. If you haven't used the LAC 1851 Census before, please take the time to read the various items listed in the Table of Contents on the main census page for 1851 so you have a basic understanding of this census.

Screen Capture of Library and Archives Canada "Search: Census of 1851" page searching for District Number 30, Sub-District 295, Page 79 in Canada West (Ontario).

The first step once you get to the "Search: Census of 1851" page is to click on the "Hide/Show Advanced Search Options" link so that the District, Sub-District, and Page Number search options are available.

As you can see in the screen capture I've already filled in the Province, District Number, Sub-District Number, and Page Number search boxes. Make sure that the District and Sub-District Numbers go in the Number boxes and not the Name boxes (yes, I've done that way too many times!)

Screen Capture of Library and Archives Canada "Search: Census of 1851" search results for District Number 30, Sub-District 295, Page 79 in Canada West (Ontario).

There will probably be around 50 results with about ten names shown on the first page of the search results. However, we don't need to find the person we are looking for in the list since all we care about is the image of that page.

To see the page image just click on the JPG link for the first person in the search results. In this case it is the "JPG (Image No.: e002367651)" link

1851 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Canada West, district 30, sub-district 295, p. 79; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 22 Jan 2022); citing microfilm C-11748.

If everything works out you will then be able to find the person you are looking for on the image which is displayed in your browser. You can right-click the image and save the image to your computer so you can look at it again without having to do these steps all over again.

However, don't forget that the 1851/52 Census is actually four pages for Canada East and Canada West. To see the other pages you need to do a little playing with the URL in your browser. 

In the URL or Location line in your browser you see something like "https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1851&op=img&id=e002367651" when you are viewing the image. All you need to do is increment that "id" number. In this case we want to change it to be e002367652 for the images of pages two and three and then e002367653 to see the image of page four and the start of the next set of people enumerated in that area.

Once you get the hang of doing something like this it really isn't too hard to do.

 

Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery

It has been a while since I last wrote a blog post. Until fairly recently my research has been of the mundane sort of finding and updating information on the many various branches on my tree. 

However, that was until a few days ago when I was waiting for a presentation I was giving on "Chipping Away at the Brick Wall" for the Southeastern Branch of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society to begin. In that talk I give examples of assumptions I've made in my research and Annie Leontine Chipman, my 1st cousin three times removed (and my 4th cousin 3 times removed...in two different ways...yes, my Chipman line is "interesting" at times), is one such example. I also like to periodically look for information about her since she led an very interesting life and constantly challenges any assumptions I've made in my research. Even her grave marker told an interesting tale since she is a recipient of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

 Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/167501062/anne-leontine-chipman : accessed 18 January 2022), memorial page for Anne Leontine Chipman (11 Feb 1864–10 Mar 1937), Find a Grave Memorial ID 167501062, citing Oak Grove Cemetery, Kentville, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada ; Maintained by LMK (contributor 47573469).

However, this time it is about her being found in two places in census records of two countries almost at the same time.

Early on in my research days I had found her in the 1881 census of Canada in Kentville, Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. That census was taken on April 4, 1881.

1881 census of Canada, Nova Scotia, district 17, sub-district F-1, Kentville, p. 2, dwelling 5, family 5, Annie L Chipman; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Feb 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-13173.

There I found her in the household of her father Leverett DeVeber Chipman, her mother Nancy, and siblings Wilford (Wilford Henry Chipman), and Eva (Lena Evangeline Chipman). All simple and very straightforward...or so I thought.

As I mentioned, she keeps throwing me curve balls in my research and she did it again in the 1881 census. While waiting for the meeting to begin I pulled up Annie's profile in Ancestry and clicked on the search button not really expecting to find something. Yet I was in for a shock when Ancestry pointed me to an 1881 census in England for an Annie Leoline Chapman who was born about 1864 with "Nova Scotia Kentville (British Subject)" as the place of birth attending as a student at Kilburn College in Kilburn, Middlesex.

1881 census of England, Middlesex, Parish of Willesden, Kilburn, Ecclesiastical Parish of St Johns, folio 54, page 23, Alice Leontine Chapman; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 18 Jan 2022); citing PRO RG 11/1364.

Once I looked at the image I could see that it wasn't "Leotine" but there was an "n" added beneath that word as a correction so it read "Leontine". The place of birth and the age was right so just how was this possible? The 1881 census of England was taken on April 3, 1881 but she is recorded as being in the household of her father on April 4, 1881. There were no airplanes in 1881 so how did she travel more than 4,500 km in a day?

That is when I recalled Janice Nickerson's great presentation she gave titled "Ontario Census Fundamentals" for the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society in November 2021. She had mentioned that the Canadian censuses use the "de jure system" of enumeration. 

So just what does this mean?

In the "Manual containing The Census Act, and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1881)", of which a copy can be found on the Internet Archive, they state:

"The principle adopted for the registration of the population is that which is called by statists the population de droit or de jure ; that is, the population legally domiciled within the territory of the Dominion, and including all persons who may be temporarily absent from their place of abode, whether at the fisheries, at sea, or in the forest wilderness, &c."

Great.

But how does this really get applied in Annie's situation?

You have to keep reading further in the Instructions to the Enumerators where it states:

"Therefore, the names of seamen at sea, college students and school children, of the sick in hospitals, of inmates temporarily present in educational, charitable or penal institutions, are to be taken down in their own provinces, at their own domiciles or homes, and not at temporary abiding places or institutions. In other words, all living members of one family are to be registered as being present at the family abode, unless they are settled in homes of their own, or have left the country with intention not to return."

This matches Annie Leontine Chipman perfectly. She was attending school and she had left the country but she was going to return back to Canada after school.

How about the 1881 Census of England and Wales? In the "Census of England and Wales, 1881. Instructions to the Various Officers as to Their Duties in Taking the Census" the census was to be "...every living person who abode in every house on the night of Sunday the third day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one..."

It would seem that Canada and England used different rules for determining who shall be enumerated where. That is how Annie can be in two widely separated places almost on the same day.

Of course, in the 30 minutes before I was to give the presentation I was madly creating a new slide for the assumptions section since this assumption of how the Canadian censuses were taken really bit me!