Back in 2015 I wrote an article titled "Canadian Census Enumerator Instructions" which pointed folks to the instructions that the enumerators were supposed to follow (operative word here is "supposed"). Over the past 9 years we've had two more Canadian censuses released to the public, Library and Archives Canada has undergone a change to their site, and links to some of the instructions have broken. So here is an update to that article.
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| Seventh census of Canada 1931, instructions to commissioners and enumerators (Ottawa: F.A. Acland, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1931), cover page. |
First of all, before pointing you to the enumerator instructions, I want to remind everyone to make sure you read all the way across the census page and look at each column. There can be important clues held within that we may be ignoring in our haste to move to the next record to locate. Details such as:
- Were the children going to school?
- Did someone in the household have an infirmity?
- Was another language spoken in the household?
- Is there a note indicating the date and household where the enumerator stopped their work for the day?
In our review of the various columns we will come across abbreviations that might have us wondering things like what religion is "E.M.C." and what is that "U.C." recorded for the place of birth. My initial starting place to help me decipher those abbreviations is the "General census guide" page on Library and Archives Canada web site found under their "Census records" topic page. If you haven't done so lately, take the time to check out the various census related pages found under that topic page. There have been many changes and updates in the past few years.
As for the instructions to the enumerators, the "Pre-Confederation, 1825 to 1867", "Dominion of Canada, 1871 to 1931", and "Prairie Provinces Census, 1870-1926" pages on the Library and Archives Canada site all have columns with links pointing to where we can find the instruction. Some of these links will take you to the Act permitting the government to take the census.
In addition to the links provided by Library and Archives Canada, here the links to the same sorts of instruction manuals for the post Confederation enumerations of Canada mostly found on the Internet Archive:
- 1871: Manual containing The Census Act and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the first census of Canada
- 1881: Manual containing The Census Act and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada
- 1891: Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the third census of Canada
- 1901: Instructions to chief officers, commissioners and enumerators
- 1911: Instructions to officers, commissioners and enumerators and Instructions to enumerators in the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory
- 1921: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
- 1931: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
- 1941: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
There are also the surviving special nominal censuses of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta that were taken between the censuses of the rest of the dominion:
- 1906: Issue of Proclamation for taking the Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta
- 1916: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
- 1926: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
- 1936: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
- 1946: Instructions to commissioners and enumerators
Before Confederation in 1867 there were censuses taken of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Canada East, and Canada West. These censuses can vary greatly in terms of what was asked. For example, the Nova Scotia censuses prior to Confederation only include the name of the head of household
1851:
- Nova Scotia: An Act for taking the Census of the Province, and obtaining Statistical information
- New Brunswick: An Act for ascertaining the Population of this Province and An Act to amend an Act, intituled An Act for ascertaining the Population of this Province
1852 (Canada East/Canada West)
- Gagan, David P., "Enumerators' Instruction for the Census of Canada 1852 and 1861." Histoire sociale/Social History. Vol. VII, no. 14 (Novembre-November 1974)
1861
- Canada East/Canada West: Gagan, David P., "Enumerators' Instruction for the Census of Canada 1852 and 1861." Histoire sociale/Social History. Vol. VII, no. 14 (Novembre-November 1974)
You might have noticed that I also included the instructions for censuses that have not yet been released to the public. The images for those census won't be transferred from Statistics Canada to Library and Archives Canada until 92 years after the census date. However, now we at least know what questions were asked.
As always, make sure you save any of the PDFs to your computer for safe keeping. One never knows when a page or document will disappear from the Internet.