1931 Census of Canada - Do you have a radio?

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 the Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930 where in the "Home Data" section they asked "Radio set" in column 9.

So why did both Canada and the United States ask that question about having a radio?

Canadians are that time were wondering the same thing.

So on May 28, 1931 in The Lloydminster Times we find a write up titled "RADIO CENSUS".

"Radio Census," The Lloydminster Times, 28 May 1931, p. 8, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com https://www.newspapers.com/ : accessed 26 Jun 2023).

The column starts off explaining that it wasn't to locate people who have not paid for a radio receiving equipment license. The answers to this question, like all questions on Canadian censuses, are confidential until 92 years after the census was taken. All that the various government departments get are the compiled statistical results. The newspaper column went on to explain that the question was asked because the government was wanting to understand who had a radio. Nothing sinister at all.

Just a moment...you had to have a license to operate radio receiving equipment¹ (AKA a radio) in Canada?

"License to Operator a Radio Receiving Equipment - Victoria, British Columbia - Canada 1924," digital image,Scripophily.com (https://scripophily.net/license-to-operate-a-radio-receiving-equipment-victoria-british-columbia-canada-1924/ : accessed 26 Jun 2023).

That was actually the case until 1953 when the Government of Canada finally dropped that requirement for folks to have a license to own a radio, and it was a license per radio at that, to listen to broadcasts of "The Happy Gang".

So if the government already knew who had a license, why ask this question on the census?

The license only told the government that a household had a radio and where. The neat thing about the census is that it asks all kinds of information. That other information can then be correlated and processed to create possibly interesting bits of information for future planning.

There is even a short report created in 1932 by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics using the information from the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 titled "Radio Sets in Canada 1931" available for your reading enjoyment (or as an insomnia remedy aid). Note that this was a preliminary count of radios and differs from the final reports published in 1936. This 1932 report even breaks down where the radios are located based on the census districts and cities and the number of radios per 1,000 population. In Volume 1 of the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 reports published in 1936 there are a few other tables included such as the one found on page 1404. Volume 5 of the reports also has a few tables breaking down radio ownership by household types.

Hopefully this answers the question of why folks in Canada were asked in the 1931 Census if the household owned a radio.

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1. See the various articles on the RadioAlumni.ca site starting with "Remember When We Has Private Receiving Station Licenses ?" by W. J. Wilson for an interesting history on these licenses.

1931 Census of Canada - C, B, or F?

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 : accessed 25 Jun 2023); citing Library and Archives Canada folder T-27276.

Here is an example from a page in the Lincoln census district for the Township of Grantham. We can see combinations of letters like "CC", "BB", "BC", and "FF". Even more interesting is that the handwriting is different from that of the enumerator. These letters are found not just on one page but on all the pages and in various handwriting.

This is where we need to do some thinking and analysis plus consult the various reports generated out of the statistics from the 1931 Census of Canada. Plus a bit of guess work.

Remember, a purpose of the census was to create statistics so that the government could understand how Canada has changed since the last enumerator and to help in future planning. Sometimes the information recorded on the forms needed to be simplified so that the folks doing the tabulation in the Dominion Bureau of Statistics could do the data entry to count the details. Such is the case for grouping where the parents are born. We saw these similar types of notations in the 1921 Census of Canada. But at least this time the statisticians kept the extra comments to a minimum on the form.

I started with the theory that:

• C = Canadian Born
• B = British Isles Born
• F = Foreign Born

The "C" was easy since for any parent born in a province or territory that made up the Dominion of Canada in 1931 I was seeing the letter "C".

The "F" was also just as easy since I was seeing it for all sorts of countries. Even if the birth country recorded for a parent was listed as "Unknown" it had the letter "F" assigned.

However, the "B" was interesting since my samples of the census were primarily taken from Ontario. I was seeing England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales all with a "B" code. However, I needed to get a better sample. For that I turned to the Vancouver-Burrard enumeration district in British Columbia. Why there? Vancouver, being on the coast, and the west coast of Canada at that, might have a more cosmopolitan population makeup. I chose Vancouver-Burrard just because (no real good reason, honest!)

Very quickly I came across a parent born in Newfoundland. There the code was "B".

Hmmm...Newfoundland wasn't a province or territory of Canada in 1931. Yet it also wasn't part of the British Isles. Then I found a father born on the Isle of Wight coded as "B". As I kept looking on the pages I came across a mother born in India with the letter "B". Next a father who was born in Australia also had the letter "B" beside his country of birth. Same with a parent born in South Africa. All in the first sub-district in the Vancouver-Burrard district. I guess I chose wisely.

Could "B" stand for British Subject¹ other than a Canadian born person? It certainly seemed that way.

However, as I was looking in sub-district 2 I came across an entry where it was written "N.G." for "Not Given" for the parents' birth place and there was a comment stating the person was absent and they were in England. The letter code associated is "N". There is always at least one anomaly to add to the confusion.

In that same sub-district I stumbled across someone whose mother was born in the West Indies and the code was written as "B".

The next place for me to look was in the various reports for the Seventh census of Canada, 1931. I looked in Volume 1 to see if they had something along the lines of birth places of the parents. In Chapter VII of the "Analysis of the Main Subjects of the Present Census and of Part Censuses of Canada" section starting on page 227 of the report (233 page of the PDF) the title is "NATIVITY OF PARENTS". There they use the terms "Canadian", "British", and "foreign". In reading the mentions of  "British" and not seeing certain countries mentioned in various tabulations throughout the report listing "Foreign" countries it would seem to me that "British" meant the person was a subject of the British Empire excluding Canada.

On page 232 of that same volume there is even a table:

Dominion Bureau of Statistics of Canada, editor, Seventh census of Canada, 1931, 13 (Ottawa, Ontario: J. O. Patenaude, I.S.O., 1936), 1. Summary. p. 232 (https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.832354/publication.html : accessed 25 Jun 2023), "Proportion of Different Classes of Parentage."

So now I believe the codes and their meaning we will typically find, excluding the "N" for not given, for the birth places of the parents are:

• C = Canadian Born
• B = British Subject¹ Born excluding those born in Canada
• F = Foreign Born excluding those born in Canada or as a British Subject

This gives us the combinations of:

• CC = father and mother born in Canada
• CB = father born in Canada, mother born as a British Subject
• BC = father born as a British Subject, mother born in Canada
  
• CF = father born in Canada, mother born in a foreign country
• FC = father born in a foreign country, mother born in Canada
• BB = father and mother born as a British Subject
• BF = father born as a British Subject, mother born in a foreign country
• FB = father born in a foreign county, mother born as a British Subject
• FF = father and mother born in a foreign country

 

As an aside, if you haven't read the "Administrative Report on the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931" by The Dominion Statistician that can be found in volume 1 starting on page 29 I'd highly recommend doing so. He has written all about the history of the census and even talks about why Canada uses the de jure method of recording where people reside. He provides all kinds of cool facts.

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1. Initially I had this written as "British Empire" but after thinking it over and with some feedback I've changed this to be "British Subject" as a short way of stating "subject of the British Empire". Keep in mind that someone being a British Subject extended beyond the British Isles and included the nations, dominions, colonies, and protectorates under the rule of His Majesty King George V.

1931 Census of Canada - Major City Street Indexes

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 presentation on the 1931 Census of Canada and was reviewing my material and all the pages I have stumbled upon over the past month on this topic. That is when I noticed the Library and Archives Canada Collections catalogue page "Census returns for the 1931 census [textual record (microfilm)]" had been updated with all kinds of potentially useful links.

One of them was a reference to Library and Archives Canada Finding aid 31-80 where there are the street indexes which may cover censuses from 1911 to 1941. If a person lived in one of the following cities, then we are in luck: 

• Calgary, Alberta
• Edmonton, Alberta
• Halifax, Nova Scotia
• Hamilton, Ontario
• London, Ontario
• Montreal, Quebec
• Quebec, Quebec
• Saint John, New Brunswick
• Toronto, Ontario
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• Winnipeg, Manitoba

For my great-grandfather, George Kaye Warrener, who ended up with the mangled transcription of "George Heryekaner", it took me about 40 minutes of manual searching for the street address of 28 Collahie in Toronto where he lived to find him on an image. I used Google Maps and the technique I talk about in my post "1931 Census of Canada - Success Stories". I've found that to be not too bad for a place like Toronto.

Ah, but what about using that street index finding aid?

Extract from Library and Archives Canada Finding aid 31-80 for Collahie in Toronto.

In the extract above we see that Collahie in Toronto has four entries:

• 11-128-104
• 21-113-52
• 31-138-53
• 41-163-6

The first set of digits is the census year. So I would want to look at the entry "31-138-53" for the 1931 Census of Canada.

The next set of digits is the district number, 138, followed by the sub-district number, 53.

But the districts listed on the Library and Archives Canada 1931 Census search page and in Ancestry's "1931 Census of Canada" collection only list the district by name. How does one map a district number to a name?

That information is also found in Finding aid 31-80. Those pages have been extracted and are available in PDF form so that we can even download and save the files to our computer:

• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Manitoba
• New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia
• North West Territories
• Ontario
• Prince Edward Island
• Quebec
• Saskatchewan
• Yukon

In looking in the PDF for Ontario I find that district number 138 is the Parkdale district.

Now I can quickly browse the images on Ancestry or LAC for the Province of Ontario, Parkdale district, and select sub-district 53 from the list. Then just skip through the pages until I find Collahie listed as the street address.

Total time using the street address to find George Kaye Warrener using the street index this time? Less than 5 minutes!

Keep in mind that some streets may be found spanning multiple sub-districts or even districts. College street is one such place in Toronto. So you will need to look at multiple locations to find the right range of street numbers. Yet this street index really does make it much easier to find the possible district and sub-district for a street address.

Best of luck in your searches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1931 Census of Canada - Initial Searchable Index

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 images into their system so that we could view them, thus taking the pressure off LAC.

In just over a week from the time that Ancestry had first started receiving the images of the 1931 Census of Canada from Library and Archives Canada just after midnight on June 1st, Ancestry has the first public version of their searchable index ready for our use. Ancestry, along with FamilySearch, will be working hard in the coming weeks and months to improve the accuracy of the information extracted and to add more information to those indexes just like what we see for the indexes in the 1921 Census of Canada.

You can find the "1931 Census of Canada" collection and the associated searchable index on Ancestry at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/.

Partial screen capture of the "1931 Census of Canada" search page from Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/ : accessed 9 Jun 2023).

In looking at the updated search page for the 1931 Census of Canada we find that we can search by name, birth year, where the person is living, associated family members, "relation to head", marital status, sub-district number, enumeration district, and gender. This index was effectively created by computer algorithms (AI in the marketing world) using Ancestry's Handwriting Recognition software to attempt to read what the enumerators had written down.

If you want to learn more about Ancestry's Handwriting Recognition technology and it's use in transcribing the census, you can watch their approach to the 1950 Federal Census of the United States of America, which was done last year, in their view "Teaching a Computer to Read the 1950 U.S. Census | Ancestry®".

Here is a screen capture from the 1931 Census of Canada on Ancestry with all the details open for a specific person. Yes, it is a busy screen but I'm used to it.

Screen capture of the web page from Ancestry Canada showing the 1931 Census of Canada page for Ontario, Parkdale district, sub-district 53, page 10 with "George Heryekaner" selected.

I chose this screen capture of "George Heryekaner" as my example of what we can see for a very specific reason. I'd already found him through manually looking through the censuses. He is my great-grandfather. But his name isn't "George Heryekaner" but "George Kaye Warrener". And his son isn't "Nancy" but is written as "Ronald Macgregor". OK, even I had a challenge reading the "Macgregor" part. The computer did do a good job on reading "Henriette" and "Lilian"...so kudos to our future AI Overlords.

1931 Census of Canada, Winnipeg, district 138 (Parkdale), sub-district 53 (Toronto City Ward 6), p. 10, dwelling 87, family 126, extract of household of George Heryekaner; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/ : accessed 3 Jun 2023).

When I first saw George's name recorded in the census I knew that the computer would have a fit trying to transcribe his name. And I was right! Now I thought it might guess the last name as "Kaye Warrener" or "Haye Warrener" or just "Kaye" or "Haye". However, I was wrong as to what the attempt at reading the handwriting came up with.

If I hadn't known where George and the family was living I probably would never have found him in the index. The handwriting by the enumerator is, to put it kindly, challenging. Fortunately, just like many of the other transcriptions made of records by Ancestry, we can submit our own corrections to the name and select fields. I have now added my own suggested corrections to the transcription of the 1931 Census of Canada for this family.

Contrast the handwriting above with the penmanship by the enumerator in sub-district 29 (London City Ward 4), London district, Ontario:

1931 Census of Canada, district 127 (London), sub-district 29 (London City Ward 4), p. 1, dwelling 12, family 14, extract of household of Nathaniel McKinlay; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/ : accessed 8 Jun 2023).

Here the computer had no problems reading the handwriting. 

1931 Census of Canada, district 127 (London), sub-district 29 (London City Ward 4), p. 1, dwelling 12, family 14, transcription for the entry of Nathaniel McKinlay; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/ : accessed 8 Jun 2023).

As you can well imagine, this first public release of the index from Ancestry will have it's challenges. That is why it is still important to know how to actually find an address in the census and not just rely on a computer to do the work for you. I look at using our research skills to look for someone by address in my post "1931 Census of Canada - Success Stories".

So set your expectations appropriately. The computer can't perform miracles when the handwriting is not great. Yet having the ability to search by name for folks in the 1931 Census of Canada will allow us to deal with the low hanging fruit so that we can focus our research skills on those we can't easily find.

Have fun searching!

1931 Census of Canada - Success Stories

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 kin I was looking for.

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada 1931 Census Collection Search page on 3 Jun 2023 at 12:23 p.m. ET.

My goal was to to find all four of my grandparents in this census. I knew that they were all alive and residing in Canada by the end of 1930. So, in theory, this goal should be achievable. Having a goal or task being achievable is one of the elements I mentioned in being Genealogy SMART, a post from July 2019:

• Specific: I want to find my four grandparents in the 1931 Census of Canada.
• Measurable: By the end of the process I should be able to count how many of the grandparents I have found. Hopefully all four of them.
  
• Achievable: Since the images of the 1931 Census of Canada have been released, I believe it should be possible to find my grandparents.
• Relevant: Finding them in the census will help me understand where they lived and how they were doing, economically, in 1931.
• Timely: The census was just released and is available for our use.

First of all, since the images of the 1931 Census of Canada aren't yet searchable by personal details such as names or street address I had to do some work ahead of time to learn exactly where they were living. I just can't plunk their names in a search engine and have the computer spit out the answers. It's going to take a bit of work on our part. The more work we do before even looking at the images should save us time in the long run.

All of my grandparents decided that they would be living in moderate to large cities in 1931 to make it a bit more challenging for me. I know that others who have also had success stories have been able to very quickly find their kin since those folks were living in rural areas or small towns and villages.

Here are family groupings for my grandparents, along with what I discovered in this step. Note that some of this information was gathered while actually in the searching for the census records. I really should have done all this work ahead of time!

• Nathanial and Winnifred (nee Warrener) McKinlay
• They were married in 1930 in Toronto
• In the 1932 city directory of London, Ontario they reside at 579 Colborne Street¹
• Donald McMullen
• He had not yet married Frances Howe
  
• In the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada in the Winnipeg South Centre district he was living with his parents Louis Norman and Gertrude Anne (nee Martin) McMullen at 521 Toronto Street, Winnipeg²
• In the 1932 city directory of Winnipeg, Manitoba no Donald McMullen was found listed but his father is recorded as "McMullen L N  druggist Wpg Drug h 9, 796 Wolseley"³
• Frances Howe
• She had not yet married Donald McMullen
• In the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada in the Winnipeg South Centre district she was living with her parents Joseph and Annie (nee Chipman) Howe at  what appears to be 72 Walnut Street, Winnipeg⁴. However, the 1927 city directory gives their address as 72 Chestnut Street⁵.
• In the 1932 city directory of Winnipeg, Manitoba no Frances Howe was found but her father is recorded as "Howe Joseph E asst prof Univ Man h 72 Chestnut"⁶

You might notice that I reference the 1932 city directories. Most directories weren't published the same year the information was collected so I will often use the following year's directory.

Also I recorded the district (in some cases when I was getting frustrated that I couldn't find them in the 1931 Census) they we found in for the prior census closest to the 1931 Census. This might help me figure out where I should start my looking in the 1931 Census, especially when it comes to large cities.

Since I'm dealing with moderate to large cities I also used Google Maps to place each street address on a map. This became important as I worked my way through the images.

I thought I was ready to begin my search on June 1st, 2023...but the Library and Archives Canada site had another opinion. But I did have a workaround. It was a bit more work but doable.

I started with Nathaniel and Winnifred McKinlay. Based on where I found them on the map I started with the assumption that they were in the London district and not Middlesex East or Middlesex West. Via another site I had a possible lead that the address, 579 Colborne Street, might be in sub-district 17 so I started there. After scanning the eighteen pages I didn't find them.

This is where using Google Maps became useful. With 579 Colborne Street pinned on the map I had Google Maps give me directions to the first address in sub-district 17, 290 Cheapside.

Screen capture from Google Maps for directions from 290 Cheapside Street to 579 Colborne Street in London, Ontario.

Why map the directions? As I came across the next sub-district I could put in an address from one of the pages to see if I was getting any closer to my target address. I might even jump ahead a few sub-districts and see about getting directions. By doing this I could also figure out how the sub-districts were roughly laid out.

Since I was using a workaround method which was a bit slower than just clicking the next image it did take me a bit of time. But after about 178 images I found my Dad's parents, Nathaniel and Winnifred (nee Warrener) McKinlay on page 1 in sub-district 29!

1931 census of Canada, Ontario, district 127 (London), sub-district 29 (London City Ward 4), p. 1, dwelling 12, family 14, household of Nathaniel McKinley; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada (https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931 : accessed 1 Jun 2023).

Since I'm a persistent (some may call it stubborn) researcher, I tried my luck finding my grandmother Frances Howe. This was a bit harder since I hadn't written down in my pre-search notes the district name from the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada yet. 

This bit me big time!

I spent way too much time looking in the wrong districts because of an assumption. I first looked in Winnipeg North and Winnipeg North Centre since I assumed that the Assiniboine River would be the district boundary. But when I plotted the various address I was seeing in the sub-districts for those districts they were all too far away from 72 Chestnut Street and getting further away. That's when I clued in to look at the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada all thanks to a suggestion by Dave Obee in his CanGenealogy 1931 census research tips page.

They were in the Winnipeg South Centre district in 1926! Once I started getting directions from 72 Chestnut Street to addresses for the sub-districts in that district plotted on the map everything started to work out much, much better. Relatively quickly I was able to find Frances and her parents.

1931 census of Canada, Winnipeg, district 189 (Winnipeg South Centre), sub-district 51 (Winnipeg Ward 1), p. 7, dwelling 58, family 59, household of Joseph Howe; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada (https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931 : accessed 2 Jun 2023).

It was getting late, I was tired, and I'd already had enough challenges on the launch day while also providing guidance and tips to others via several Facebook groups. So I decided to leave looking for my other grandparent, Donald McMullen, until the daylight hours of June 2nd.

At around 11 am on June 2, 2023 Ancestry released their copies received from Library and Archives Canada and posted the images in their "1931 Census of Canada" browse only collection and the game suddenly changed for me. 

Screen capture from Ancestry's "1931 Census of Canada" collection search page found at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/.

I didn't have to deal with a slow or non-functioning LAC site. Since Ancestry had already gone through the experience of hosting the images of the 1950 Federal Census of the United States of America I figured they could deal with any amount of traffic created by Canadian researchers.

Using all the tricks I'd learned I knew I should be able to find Donald and his parents in short order.

I decided I'd first plot both where Frances Howe, his future wife, and Donald McMullen lived since I could possibly use her address as starting point.

Screen capture from Google Maps for directions from 72 Chestnut Street to 796 Wolseley Avenue in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

They are practically neighbours! According to the map, they were about a minute walk apart.

In just a few minutes I found the household of Donald's parents, Louis and Gertrude (nee Martin) in the next sub-district, number 52, from Frances Howe and her parents.

1931 Census of Canada, Winnipeg, district 189 (Winnipeg South Centre), sub-district 52 (Winnipeg Ward 1), p. 12, dwelling 110, family 140, household of Louis McMullen; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry.ca (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/ : accessed 2 Jun 2023).

I had actually completed my goal of finding my grandparents in the 1931 Census of Canada.

I won't bore you with the challenges I had finding Elizabeth (nee Murdoch) McKinlay, my great-grandmother, in London, Ontario. But I can tell you that it is really, really important to be not distracted when looking at the images. I missed her at least two times!

The one I dreaded finding was the household of George Kaye and Henrietta (nee McGregor) Warrener, my great-grandparents, in Toronto. With Toronto being so large I thought it would be a near impossible task. Yet I found them in about 40 minutes (again a wrong assumption got me for about 10 minutes of that time).

I still have a few great-grandparents to find but now that I have a working method it shouldn't be to much of a challenge (I know, Murphy's Law is just waiting in the wings).

My tips to you:

• Do your searches when you won't get distracted!
  
• Have a plan.
• Gather as much information about where the person was living around 1931 
• Use city directories for 1931 and 1932
• The 1935 Voters' Lists might help if you believe they stay in the same home since 1931
  
• Use the prior census to see what district and even sub-district that street or place was listed in. The person might not even be in Canada at that time but knowing the district and sub-district may help reduce the number of pages to look at in a large city.
  
• For a large city, make use of Google Maps to help figure out if you are getting closer to the street address you want to find
  
• Use the images from Ancestry. Their images load so much faster than the copies on the LAC site. Plus their filmstrip found at the bottom of their image screen makes it a breeze to move to the next sub-district
  
• Don't get stressed out trying to find your kin. Genealogy and family history research is supposed to be fun. You might even think about waiting until a searchable name index is available.

Good luck in your searches!

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1. Vernon Directories Limited, Vernon's City of London (Ontario) Directory for the Year 1932 (Hamilton, Ontario: Vernon Directories Limited, 1932),  370, entry for McKinlay Nathnl (Winnifred). 

2. 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada, Manitoba, district 17, sub-district 19, Winnipeg, p. 29, dwelling 219, family 366, Donald McMullen; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 30 Apr 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-27399.

3. Henderson Directories Limited, Henderson's Winnipeg Directory 1932 (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Henderson Directories Limited, 1932), 935, entry for McMullen L N.

4. 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces of Canada, Manitoba, district 17, sub-district 21, Winnipeg, p. 7, dwelling 71, family 75, Frances Howe; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 5 Jan 2021); citing Library and Archives Canada.

5.  Henderson Directories Limited, Henderson's Winnipeg Directory 1927 (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Henderson Directories Limited, 1927), 943, entry for Howe Joseph E.

6.  Henderson Directories Limited, Henderson's Winnipeg Directory 1932 (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Henderson Directories Limited, 1932), 817, entry for Howe Joseph E.

1931 Census of Canada - A Release Fiasco?

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 stalled. The LAC site can be slow at the best of times but this was so painfully slow that I walked away from the site. Like any good genealogist, I started doing other research periodically checking back in to see if maybe they had added more back-end processing power to compensate for the load.

No such luck and by 10:43 a.m. ET an overload notice was displaying on the search page:

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada "high level of traffic" notice on the 1931 Census search page retrieved at 10:43 a.m. on June 1, 2023.

Congratulation to the genealogy and family history researchers out there! We basically broke the Library and Archives Canad web site. I guess Library and Archives Canada forgot that there are a lot of us out there and we are very passionate and enthusiastic for any new genealogy collections, especially census releases.

I still had my hopes up and would check in on the site to see if it was getting better.

Nope!

By the evening we were now seeing a brand new message. Instead of being horribly slow in displaying the images we were getting a "Unable to open [object Object]: Error loading image at https://central-d.dev.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?id=e011717820&app=census1931&op=img" message (substitute the e011717820 for some other number for any other image).

Screen capture of "Unable to open [object Object]: Error loading image at https://central-d.dev.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?id=e011717820&app=census1931&op=img" from the Library and Archives Canada 1931 Census search page from 10:23 p.m. ET on June 1, 2023.

It almost seems like someone updated the program on the server, tested it in house OK, but forgot to change the pointer to the image files from the development version to the live production version of the 1931 Census images. Of course, by then everyone working on the web site had probably gone home since the issue still existed as of 8:30 a.m. ET on June 2, 2023.

But this error pointed me to a possible solution. For you see, I recognize that URL from my efforts in playing with the other censuses of Canada to find records with addresses to help me find land records in Ontario.

For example, here is the link to the image for the 1901 Census of Canada page from Library and Archives Canada for my 3rd great-grandfather, Luke McMullen, on page 2 in Elmsley North sub-district, Lanark South district, Ontario: https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1901&op=img&id=z000077117.

It is very similar to the image file location being given for the 1931 Census of Canada. Except the 1931 Census is pointing to a "central-d.dev.bac-lac.gc" server and not "central.bac-lac.gc.ca". 

Using my browser, could I try opening the image given to me in the error massage but change "central-d.dev" to just "central"? Of course I could and I did!

Image retrieved from https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?id=e011717820&app=census1931&op=img showing the sub-district descriptive card.

Suddenly I had access to the missing images. 

A small victory for me!

Now I was very familiar with navigating the images using that sort of URL. So I rearranged the stuff after the question mark in the address to put "id=" at the end to get https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=census1931&op=img&id=e011717820. Now I could quite easily and simply change the last digits of the id to go to the hopefully next image.

I decided to focus my efforts on finding the household of Nathaniel and Winnifred (Warrener) McKinlay. They are my paternal grandparents and, according to the 1932 City Directory of London, Ontario they resided at 579 Colborne Street. Why the 1932 directory and not the 1931 directory? Often a city directory wasn't published the same year the information was collected so I will use the following year's directory first as my starting point when dealing with censuses.

After about 60 minutes later of going through the images, using Google Maps to see if the addresses appearing on the images were getting closer or not to my target address, after glancing through about 178 images I found them exactly where I hoped. 

A big victory for me!

"1931 Census", images, Library and Archives Canada (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=census1931&op=img&id=e011656764 : accessed 1 Jun 2023 19h12), Population Schedule, Ontario, London district (127), London Ward 4 sub-district (29), p 1 containing the household of Nathaniel McKinley in dwelling 12, family 14.

I then pushed my luck and tried to find my other grandparents in Winnipeg. That was much more of a challenge just due to how the sub-districts are laid out in Winnipeg and where my grandparents lived. I actually had to walk away several times in frustration. But, using a search suggestion by Dave Obee in his CanGenealogy 1931 census research tips of using the 1926 Census of the Prairie Provinces as a possible starting place for the district I did finally find them just after midnight.

Am I glad I could access the 1931 Census of Canada? Of course I am!

Am I really annoyed at Library and Archives Canada for botching the release of this census? You bet I am!

However, despite their failures I did find my grandparents but only due to my limited understanding of how LAC stores their census images.

The release of this census could have been a wonderful success story for Library and Archives Canada. Instead I consider this to be a release fiasco. Shame on Library and Archives Canada!

I'm only hoping that Ancestry and FamilySearch, in their indexing of the 1931 Census of Canada, meets with more success and that they don't let us down.

UPDATE - 2 June 2023 11:07 AM

Ancestry Canada now has the images of the 1931 Census of Canada available on their site in the appropriately named collection "1931 Census of Canada" found at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/. In my limited testing it would seem that you only need a free Ancestry account, at least for those in Canada, to access the collection. A paid subscription does NOT seem to be needed. Much like the Library and Archives Canada 1931 Census site, the images can only be browsed...for now. But at least Ancestry's site works and can also handle the load.

Screen capture from Ancestry's "1931 Census of Canada" collection search page found at https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62640/.

UPDATE - 2 June 2023 12:07 PM

It looks like LAC has resolved the issue with the images attempting to be retrieved from the wrong server but the LAC site is still as slow as molasses on a cold Canadian winter night. Since Ancestry now has the same images, their filmstrip makes it easy to move to the next sub-district, and the Ancestry site is generally much faster when viewing images, I'm going to stick with Ancestry's "1931 Census of Canada" collection for my personal research.

1861 Census of Canada West - The Census That Keeps Giving Challenges

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, Concession V is not on the single page for Stanley Township, and therefore his information is lost to the angels.

Is there anywhere else I can search?  Possibly a microfilm at LAC?"

It just seems like the 1861 Census of Canada West keeps giving us challenges.

Curiously, I had experienced a very similar problem in February so I actually had knew where to start. Yet, like all adventures, I really didn't know where this journey would ultimately take me and the discoveries I'd make.

The short answer to that initial question was to look at the Census of Canada, 1861 collection on FamilySearch. Many of these microfilms in this collection aren't available for viewing from home but only at a FamilySearch Center and not a FamilySearch Affiliate. However, in this case we were lucky enough that the "ONTARIO Huron (townships of Usborne and Wawanosh, and agricultural census)" (Film 349282 / DGS 4108085) is available for viewing from home. On image 530 of 597 of that digitized microfilm we find Alexander Fraser, recorded on line 47, as residing on part of lot 29, concession 5. So that was almost easy.

"Census of Canada, 1861," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6G1Z-Q9B : accessed 25 May 2023), Agricultural Census, Huron District, Stanley Township Sub-district, Enumeration District No. 4, stamped page 146; DGS 4108085, image 530 of 597.

 

However, like much of our research, there is much more to this question than we can imagine. So let's dig into the challenges and discoveries I encountered.

My colleague mentioned that they looked for the images on the Library and Archives Canada site using the techniques I mention in blog posts "A Challenge: 1861 Census of Canada - Agricultural Schedule" and "Missing images from the 1861 Census of Canada West on Ancestry?". However, the LAC reel ended with the pages for Enumeration District No. 1 for Ward No. 1 Stanley in the County of Huron, Canada West and then the dreaded "CONTINUED-NEXT REEL" image.

"Census of 1861," images, Library and Archives Canada (https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item/?app=Census1861&op=img&id=4391938_00688 : accessed 25 May 2023), List of sub-districts for Huron District with "CONTINUED-NEXT REEL" notation; microfilm C-1037.

 

We actually find that image on FamilySearch as image 505 on the "ONTARIO Huron (townships of Usborne and Wawanosh, and agricultural census)" (Film 349282 / DGS 4108085) film. But if the digitized reel ends on the Library and Archives Canada site how can it continue on the FamilySearch digitized film? Even more importantly, where is that image for Stanley Township on the FamilySearch film to be found on the LAC site?

This is where we need to look at the "Districts and Sub-districts: Census of 1861, Canada West" page at Library and Archives Canada and look at the list of physical microfilms for the Huron district. This list doesn't include the Agricultural Census in the list of Sub district names but, based on looking on the various images on the LAC digitized reel and on FamilySearch, it would appear that the Huron County Agricultural Census is found on microfilm C-1037. If the Agricultural Census is supposedly continued on the next reel, it might be safe to assume (a dangerous word in any research endeavour) that the rest of the Agricultural Census is found on microfilm C-1038. Looking on the list of microfilms on the "Districts and Sub-districts: Census of 1861, Canada West" page we see that the Population Census for Camden and Gore sub-district of Kent County are found on microfilm C-1038.

We can use the Advanced Search Options on LAC for the Census of 1861 to go to the first page of the Population Census for Camden and Gore Townships of Kent County.

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Search: Census of 1861 form with Advanced Search Options shown searching for Canada West, District Name Kent, Sub-District Name Camden, Page Number 1.

Picking the first name returned we notice that the id in the URL pointing to the image on the LAC site is 4391555_00098. For those who have used my tips of searching and wandering through the images of the Census of 1861 on the LAC site you probably will be thinking "Hmmm, we are already on image 98. What might be on those earlier images?"

Starting at image 4391555_00001 we can step through the images until we get to something interesting. On image 10 of LAC's digitized microfilm we find an image just like what we saw at the end of the last LAC digitized microfilm, an image listing the sub-districts of the Huron District. By image 12 we start seeing the Agricultural Census for Enumeration District No. 2 of the Township of Stanley for the County of Huron. Lo and behold, a few images later on the Library and Archives Canada site, we find the same image we found on FamilySearch for Enumeration District No. 4 of Stanley Township in the County of Huron on LAC's image id 4391555_00028.

Just a moment...

FamilySearch has this Agricultural Census all together on a single digitized microfilm and Library and Archives Canada has it spread across two digitized microfilms. 

What is going on? 

Which "digitized microfilm" accurately reflects the actual microfilm? 

I'm fortunate to live in Ottawa where the main LAC public facility is located so this question warranted a trip in to check the physical microfilm(s). Unsurprisingly, the LAC digitized microfilms would appear to be a true and accurate copy of the physical microfilms. The County of Huron Agricultural Census for 1861 is spread across two physical microfilms.

It seems that, at least in this case, the FamilySearch Image Group Number (DGS) film 4108085 is not a true copy of the physical microfilm. All the details are there but they have "helped" us out by splicing together images from several physical microfilms. It's just one more thing to watch for in our research and possible citations.

What about my fellow researcher's challenge with finding the image on Ancestry?

I've noted in my own travels that Ancestry has done some strange things with the Census of 1861 and how the images have been put together on their virtual filmstrip. My colleague had found the image for the Agricultural Census of Enumeration District no. 1 for Ward No. 1 Stanley in Huron County on page 1274 of 1274. The URL that Ancestry uses to display that image is https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/1570/images/4391938_00686. That image number in the Ancestry URL really looks like the image id from Library and Archives Canada. So plugging in the number from LAC we can create the Ancestry URL https://www.ancestry.ca/imageviewer/collections/1570/images/4391555_00028. Going to that web address we find that image we found on the LAC and FamilySearch sites. 

But it is image 438 of 1274 on Ancestry's virtual filmstrip! 

Ancestry, in their creation of their virtual filmstrip, has placed the images from LAC's microfilm C-1038 for the County of Huron smack dab between the Personal Census Enumeration District No. 3 Ward of the Township of Hay in the County of Huron, stamped page 25 (image 430) and Personal Census Enumeration District No. 3 Ward of the Township of Hay in the County of Huron, stamped page 27 (image 473). Talk about confusing!

Ultimately it turns out that Ancestry had not properly indexed the entries on that Agricultural Census page since the entry for Alexander Fraser is only listed under his Given Name "Alexander" and no surname has been transcribed into the index. About a quarter of the names on that page are missing the surname. Even knowing the stamped page number didn't help me out. With not putting any names in and searching on just the exact keyword "agricultural" and the exact page number "146"  for anyone who lived in "Huron, Ontario, Canada" Ancestry returned 5774 entries and my listed started on page 137. That's why my fellow research couldn't find their Alexander Fraser in the index. Ancestry really doesn't make it easy for us at times!

Of course, another issue with the images on Ancestry is that they only imaged the first page of the two page forms so we still need to use the images available on the Library and Archives Canada site to see the whole picture of what is recorded for each person or lot. I've covered that challenge in "Missing images from the 1861 Census of Canada West on Ancestry?"

I wonder (and sort of dread) what the next challenge the Census of 1861 for Canada West will bring!

1931 Census of Canada - Are You Ready?

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 Canada catalogue as Reference R233-179-4-E, RG31.
• There are 187 microfilm reels that have been digitized creating 234,678 images.
• Library and Archives Canada has partnered with Ancestry and FamilySearch to transcribe the key information from the 1931 Census of Canada in order to create a searchable index.
• Initially the digitized images will be available on the Library and Archives Canada site on 1 Jun 2023 and they will be grouped by districts and sub-districts.

From the archival reference we also learn the following details:

• The original paper census returns were microfilmed in the 1950s by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics.
• The original paper census returns were destroyed.
• In 2005-2006, Statistics Canada copied the microfilms created in the 1950s to make a new master since there were concerns about potential degradation of the older microfilms.
• Forms 1A and 1B, along with the special form for the North West Territories, which contain the the population schedule forms may be all that we get. The other schedules may not have been microfilmed in the 1950s. However, we likely won't know what made it to be microfilmed until this census is released to the public.

So what will these forms look like? Here is a sample of Form 1A from the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure site. 

Sample of Form 1A for the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931 retrieved from the Canadian Century Research Infrastructure Census Schedules page.

We can also see the various columns for the questions asked for Form 1 (Population schedule) for the 1931 Census of Canada on page 1445 in Volume 1 of the Report of the Seventh Census of Canada, 1931. In that same report in Appendix II we can see a few of the other forms that were used. How many of those other forms were microfilmed in the 1950s and later digitized is unknown as I write this blog post.

What About the Questions Asked? 

For that we can refer to the "Seventh census of Canada 1931, instructions to commissioners and enumerators" available to us from the Government of Canada Publications web site for free. 

 

Canada. Dominion Bureau of Statistics. Seventh census of Canada 1931, instructions to commissioners and enumerators. Ottawa, 1931. https://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/9.832323/publication.html.

We find important details such as the "Date for recording population" described in detail:

"The date selected for recording the population in the present Census is Monday, the first day of June, 1931. The decisive hour of reckoning is 12 o'clock or midnight on the night of 31st of May to 1st June; everyone born before that hour and everyone dying after it are to be counted in the population."

Of course, as we have seen in the previous enumerations, sometimes folks got the instructions wrong so caveat lector. We also learn that Canada is still using the "de jure" system for enumeration. Quoting from the instructions, they write, "Briefly, this means that the home of usual place of abode is the place where the majority of persons should be counted." There are several pages throughout the instructions just explaining this in detail for the enumerator. This is an important difference when compared to other countries and I've discussed it in my post "Annie Leontine Chipman and a Census Mystery".

Our Preparations

If you know that someone was alive on 1 Jun 1931 and resided in Canada then you will probably want to look for them in the 1931 Census of Canada. But how do you figure that out?

Some of the genealogy programs actually provide tools to suggest likely candidates:

RootsMagic has their "Who Was There List" where you can ask it to give its best guess on who was in Canada on 1 Jun 1931.

Screen capture from RootsMagic v7 "Who Was There List" Report Settings screen.

Legacy Family Tree has their Census List Search tool where, like RootsMagic, you can provide information about the place and time. What I like about the Legacy Family Tree tool is that I can ask for it to be filtered by the odds of them still being in Canada on a specific date.

Screen capture from Legacy Family Tree v9 "Search Census List" search settings screen.

For those using Family Tree Maker (FTM) it requires a bit of work on our part to create a list. With FTM you need to use various filters. The Genealogical Forum of Oregon has instructions for the 1950 Federal Census of the United States for "Creating a 'People Alive in 1950' List" that can be adapted for the 1931 Census of Canada by substituting the applicable dates.

• Filter Out Birth before 1821 [those with known births older than 110 years]
• Filter Out Death before 1 Jun 1931
• Filter Out Birth after 1 Jun 1931

I have 16162 individuals in my cousin bait tree on Ancestry and linked to FTM on my computer. Depending on who you include from the start in your filter the numbers left will great vary. For example:

• If I start with "Include all", after I apply the date filters I have 13307 individuals. Yikes!
• Starting with "Ancestors of me [including all parents, all spouses, and ancestors' descendants for 10 generations]" I end up with 5353 individuals. Better but still yikes! 
• However, if I start my filter with "Filter In Any Fact Places Contains Canada" then I end up with 4307 individuals. Still a lot of folks but this one might work for me if I was using Family Tree Maker.

For other genealogy programs try an Internet search to see how you can use filters or searches to create a list of people who may have been alive in 1931 and could possibly appear in the 1931 Census of Canada.

Other Tips

Dave Obee also has an excellent write-up on his CanGenealogy site on 1931 census research tips that may help you in looking through this census before the name searchable indexes are available. One of his links points you to the Scholars GeoPortal site with the Boundary Files, 1931 Census of Canada which allows you to possibly figure out the district and sub-district where your kin resided in the census, assuming you know where they were in Canada.

Also pay attention to the various genealogy society announcements for presentations and webinars providing more tips.

So have fun when the images are released on the Library and Archives Canada site!