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!