1911 Census of Canada and Addresses in Ontario

Although the 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1901 Censuses of Canada have additional schedules which have survived to provide us with more detailed information of where our ancestors resided, the 1911 census also has that information included in the surviving "Schedule 1, Population".

From the Library and Archives Canada page on "Census of Canada, 1911" under the Columns headings and interpretation" section they state:

Column 4. Place of habitation

• For cities, towns or incorporated villages, the number of the house and the name of the street, such as "14 Bay Street."
• For rural districts, the name of the township, lot, parish or cadastral number such as "lot 13, concession 1."
• For Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the location was noted by township, range or meridian such as "T. 14, R. 9, W. 3," for township 14, range 9, west of the 3rd meridian.

The exact wording of the instructions to the enumerators can be found in the "Fifth Census of Canada 1911: Instructions to Officers, Commissioners and Enumerators" on page 26, item 82, "Place of habitation"

In theory, if the enumerator was being diligent, we should have that information when we come across them in the 1911 Census of Canada.

The operative phrase here is "In theory". Here are a few samples from my own collection of 1911 Census of Canada pages in Ontario to highlight the various ways enumerators recorded the place of habitation.

Here, the enumerator only provided the name of the township, N. Elmsley:

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 90, sub-district 15, Elmsley North Township, p. 4; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 Nov 2013); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20381.

Contrast that with the following extract from the census done in Tay Township, Simcoe County where the enumerator provided the lot and concession.

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 119, sub-district 21, Tay Township, p. 7; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Feb 2014); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20397.

What about the villages, town, and cities in Ontario? Here is an example with the street number and name recorded in the place of habitation. As long as the street name hasn't changed, the street hasn't been renumbered, or the street completely removed we have a chance of finding the location on a current map.

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 132, sub-district 46, Niagara Falls, p. 38; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Aug 2015); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20408.

There may be occasions where we have to read around some of the tally marks made by the enumerator or statistician. So that can be annoying at times.

Sometime you only get the name of the street and not the number. But that's better than nothing...right?

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 83, sub-district 20, Goderich, p. 24; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Jan 2019); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20378.

Unfortunately, there are times where not even the street name is given as we find for the Town of Clinton. All the enumerator wrote was "Clinton".

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 83, sub-district 17, Clinton Town, p. 13; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 Oct 2012); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20378.

What really makes life challenging is when the paper copy was put onto microfilm and the quality of the image is, for a better word, lacking.

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 68, sub-district 49, Kingsville, p. 1; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Nov 2014); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20371.

Hopefully with graphic editing software you might be able to bring out the details (this is just a quick first pass contrast/gamma correction using Irfanview)

1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 68, sub-district 49, Kingsville, p. 1; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 27 Nov 2014); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20371; colour adjusted.

As you can see, the 1911 Census of Canada also has clues we can use to find our ancestors on the ground.

Finding on the Ground: Then and Now in Ontario

When dealing with land records in Ontario one of the challenges I still struggle with is locating the property when the family lived in an urban area. So when I saw the following post in the Ontario Genealogy Facebook group I decided to give it another go.

"I have found my 2nd great grandparents, William and Jane Hughes on the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censuses in Orangeville. Is there any way to figure out exactly where in the Orangeville area they lived?"

There were several good suggestions such as looking on the Canadian County Atlas Digital Project and looking at Ontario city directories like those linked to by The Ancestor Hunt. Out of those suggestions, another clue was provided to help me locate the family in the census. William and Jane Hughes had sons Robert and William were tailors. One person suggested looking at the other census schedules since they provide real estate information.

And that is where I am going to start.

Out of the three Canada censuses mentioned in the original query, the 1871 census of Canada is the only one with surviving schedules beyond the Population Schedule. On Ancestry I started looking for a William Hughes residing in Orangeville with a Jane as a possible spouse and Robert and William in the household. Keep in mind that the 1871 census of Canada doesn't list the familial relationships so we have to often make assumptions as to the relationship or use other records to confirm the connect. I also used Ancestry for several reasons:

• Ancestry has images for the 1871 census available for viewing whereas FamilySearch doesn't. FamilySearch does have the census transcribed but I prefer looking at the image for other clues.
• The URL for the image which Ancestry presents includes details I can use to view the same image on the Library and Archives Canada site.
  
• The search system on the Library and Archives Canada site for censuses is not as powerful as that found on Ancestry
  

After searching Ancestry I found one household which fit the information about the family.

Here is the family of William Hughes in the Wellington Centre district (34), Orangeville sub-district (i), on page 66, starting at line 1, dwelling 236, family 236.

1871 Census of Canada, Wellington Centre (district 34), Orangeville (sub-district i), Schedule 1, p. 66-67, Household of William Hughes; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/ : accessed 13 Jul 2021); citing microfilm C-9948.

Now I turned to my own prior blog post "Ontario Concession and Lot in the 1871 Census of Canada" to guide me through the process to locate Schedule 4, Return of cultivated land and products on Ancestry. For that I needed to record the following details:

• District: Wellington Centre (34)
• Sub-district: Orangeville (i)
• Page: 66
• Line: 1
  

Moving through the virtual filmstrip on Ancestry I quickly came to image 54 of 85 which has the image of the Schedule 4 page which references back to page 66, line 1 of Schedule 1 - Nominal Return of Living (AKA the Population Schedule).

1871 Census of Canada, Wellington Centre (district 34), Orangeville (sub-district i), Schedule 4, p. 12-13; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/ : accessed 13 Jul 2021); citing microfilm C-9948.

If this was a rural property I would have expected to see a concession and lot number after the columns with the 66 and 1. Instead there are dashes which leads me to believe the property is within the village of Orangeville. Even then there are bits of information for us.

• William owns the property
• There are 3 acres occupied
• 3 acres have been improved
• 1 acre allocated for pasture
• 1 acre has been used to produce 100 bushels of potatoes

I still don't know where in Orangeville they reside. The directories I did come across were farmer and business directories and I didn't find William Hughes listed with an address. But, based on my own experience, that isn't too surprising. So off to my next stop, the land records.

For this I wanted to look at the Land Record books. Normally I'd start with the Abstract Index books but sometimes the Land Record books include a name index at the front and the Abstract Index books don't. But I don't have a lot, concession, or any other specific about the location. So I took a gamble in the hopes of short-cutting the search.

On FamilySearch I used the catalogue to search for the current county which has Orangeville within its bounds, Dufferin. For the place I typed "Canada, Ontario, Dufferin" to get to the land and property records for that county. Within the Land and property section I selected "Land record of Dufferin County, ca. 1821-1955" to open up the Land Records collection. Scrolling through the list of digitized microfilms I noted that the earlier Orangeville volume "O" books may be indexed. With any luck the index will help me.

I selected DGS 8548530, "Orangeville (indexed) 1825-1863; Orangeville (v. 1) 1841-1869; Orangeville (v. O, indexed) 1864-1869" as a starting place on the hope that William Hughes had land transactions in that time since he was already settled in Orangeville by 1871.

The Town of Orangeville Deeds volume "O" which I was interested in started at image 345 in that digitized microfilm reel.

As an aside, although the current town of Orangeville is in Dufferin County in Ontario and not Wellington County, until 1879 Orangeville was part of Wellington County. Yes, geography can be confusing and boundaries can shift or be created over time. This can actually be seen when you read the description page of that volume where it is recorded:

"This Register contains, exclusive of the Index 175 pages and is to be used in and for the Village of Orangeville in the County of Wellington for the Enregistration of Memorials, under the provisions of the Act of the Legislature of the Province of Canada passed in the Ninth Year of Her Majesty's Reign..."

In the index I came across a mortgage instrument for William Hughes and wife recorded as instrument 133 on folio 299. This looked promising.

After bouncing through the virtual microfilm images I came to instrument 133 starting on image 525. This was an indenture made on the 20th of February, 1868 by William Hughes of the village of Orangeville in the County of Wellington, Province of Ontario and Dominion of Canada, a weaver, and Jane Hughes of the same place as the first two parties with William Armstrong as the other party. 

William and Jane Hughes? That is the couple we are looking for. A good sign.

After reading through a whole bunch of legalese I came across the mention that the property is three acres. Three acres is the same amount of land recorded in Schedule 4 of the 1871 census of Canada for this household. I think I found the property.

A bit further on it states:

"...being composed of Part lot number Eight on the South Side of Factory Street in said Village..."

Just a second!

That's a street name and even a lot number.

This is easy now I though to myself. I just have to put into Google Maps the street name and Orangeville and it will appear.

And no such luck. It looked like there is no Factory Street in present day Orangeville. OK, not a problem. I just have more work to do.

This is where old maps come in handy. A quick search for "old maps of orangeville ontario" (without the quotes) on Google Images brought me to the "2017 - TRAILBLAZERS" page of the Digital Historian Project at the Dufferin County Museum & Archives. On that page I found an early map of Orangeville from 1875 (based on the map filename).

It wasn't too long before I found Factory Street and on the south side of the street there is even a lot 8.

Map of Orangeville, "2017 - TRAILBLAZERS", Digital Historian Project Canada Case Files. (https://digitalhistorianproject.wordpress.com/2017-trailblazers/ : accessed 13 Jul 2021), extract focused on Factory and Centre Streets.

Yet where is that street now? Does it even exist? Has it been renamed?

To answer that question I returned to Google Maps to look at the present day map of Orangeville. Using the clues in the older map. With a little bit of create work in Google Maps I was able to align the map to sort of have the same orientation of the old map. Lo and behold, doesn't this area look like that extract from the old map?

Screen capture from Google Maps centred on Hillside Drive and Centre Street, Orangeville, Ontario, Canada (accessed 13 Jul 2021).

It seems like Factory Street has been renamed as Hillside Drive. I now had a current street name and with that I can possibly use the Ontario Land Property Records Portal, OnLand, Property search function but I still needed a street number. I used the Street View on Google Maps and guessed that it might be around 5 Hillside Drive.

If you haven't used OnLand yet then you are in for a rough ride initially. It has a bit of a learning curve but the results can be worth it. I'm not going to go into the details of how I found the documents though. That will possibly be for a future post.

So when I put that address into the OnLand Property address search it returned:

PT LT 8, PL 170 AS IN MF138033 ; ORANGEVILLE

as the property details.

There is that Lot 8. It is referenced as part of Plan 170 (PL 170).

I wasn't going to celebrate until I could actually see the Abstract/Parcel Index book page for that property and I see William Hughes listed.

When I looked at in the Abstract/Parcel Register Book under Historical Books for the Dufferin Land Registry Office (LRO) and filtered by Orangeville as the municipality the list was way too short so that filter wasn't going to help me. But I did see that the various "PLAN ###" books didn't have a Township/Municipality assigned. Just great...NOT!

Scrolling through the list I quickly (yay!) found PLAN 170 in Book B113. Opening that book I found it only had 63 pages. I can easily deal with looking through 63 pages.

On image 26 I found the start of the Town of Orangeville, Lot 8, Plan 170 pages.

Screen capture from the Dufferin LRO, Historical Books, Abstract/Parcel Index for Town of Orangeville, Lot 8, Plan 170, page 1; Ontario Land Property Records Portal (https://www.onland.ca/ui/ : accessed 13 Jul 2021)

There is the B&S for William Armstrong and wife selling the property to William Hughes on 20 Feb 1868. The instrument is number 132. That is just one instrument before the one describing the mortgage William Hughes took out to pay for the property.

Here is the start of that instrument as found on FamilySearch in the Land Records book for Orangeville, Book "O":

Land records of Dufferin County, ca. 1821-1955, Orangeville (indexed) 1825-1863; Orangeville (v. 1) 1841-1869; Orangeville (v. O, indexed) 1864-1869, instrument 132; Registrar's Office, Orangeville, Ontario; DGS 8,548,530, image 525, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3QZ-WF3K : accessed 13 Jul 2021).

To answer the original question "Is there any way to figure out exactly where in the Orangeville area they lived?", yes it is possible. All it took was the combined resources of:

• 1871 Census of Canada, Schedule 1
• 1871 Census of Canada, Schedule 4
• Ontario Land Record books on FamilySearch
• Ontario Land Property Record Portal (OnLand) Historical Abstract/Parcel Index books
• Google Maps
• Google Search
• some effort
  
• and a bit of luck

Etienne Campeau and his Confirmation in 1664

A week or so ago, I came across this question on the Genealogy à la carte Facebook group hosted by Gail Dever:

"I have found references to my 7th g-grandfather Etienne Campeau being confirmed in Montreal on 11 May, 1664 and July 11th of that year. I can't find it in the regular parish book for Basilique Notre-Dame.  The trick fellow group members taught me of looking under Not Stated didn't work as in the Quebec City records on Ancestry.  Any ideas?"

It got my attention since it is what I call a "good question". A name, several dates, and a place is specified along with where the person looked and even how they searched for possible leads. So I figured I'd take a look at what could be found since I'm always wanting to expand my research horizons when it comes to Quebéc records. This is always a challenge for me since my comprehension of the French language is not exactly great.

The first step was to see if I could find any references to the confirmation of Etienne Campeau in Montreal in 1664. So I plunked the terms "etienne campeau montreal confirmation 1664" (without the quotes) into my favourite search engine. The result which initially looked most promising was one on Geni, a site which operates on the "single world family tree model". On the profile page for "Étienne Campeau dit Limousin" managed by Gisèle J.M. Fiola there it is written in a history prepared by Hélène-Andrée Bizier:

"Nothing significant happens in 1664, safe the confirmation of Étienne Campeau whose name appears on two lists of confirmations, one in May and the other dated July 11th"

along with the following noted event found in a bullet list in the same profile:

"Confirmation: 11 Jul 1664, Montréal, Île-de-Montréal, Québec, Canada."

So I continued my searching since the profile page didn't have any sources for those statements.

The next search result which got my attention was "116 – Confirmations à Québec, Trois-Rivières et Montréal en 1664" posted on 28 Feb 2016 in Le blogue de Guy Perron. That post has transcriptions of the various confirmations in Quebéc in a list format. Indeed, there is the name of Étienne Campeau recorded as being confirmed on May 1644 in Montréal. Even better, at the bottom of the list is the source: "Fonds Drouin en ligne. Registre des confirmations. Archives de l’Archidiocèse de Québec. 1659-1725. p. 29-30)."

Next it was off to the online presence of the Archives de l’Archidiocèse de Québec. It took a little bit of browsing on that site to find references to the possible confirmation records. I found a mention at the bottom of their Généalogie : ressources internes page where it stated "Registres de confirmations, 1659-" I also came across the digitization project page where it would appear that the "Registre des confirmations, vol. I, 1659-" was digitized in 2014. However, it seems like they are only available at the archives in person and not online.

I figured I'd also check the PRDH-IGD site for any other clues. In Ottawa, ever since the pandemic, we are fortunate that PRDH-IGD has been made available to us to free via the Ottawa Public Library and our library card. There I found the two entries for a confirmation of Etienne Campeau at Montréal (Notre-Dame-de-Montréal). The first had the date of 1664-05 and the second entry included the day: 1664-05-11. 

The source for the 1664-05 entry is recorded as "LE QUANTIEME DE LA DATE DE LA LISTE DE CONFIRMES A ETE OMIS, ELLE EST SITUEE ENTRE LA LISTE DE CONFIRMES DE TROIS-RIVIERES DU 01-05-1664 ET CELLE DE TROIS-RIVIERES DU 22-05-1664" and Etienne's name is written as "Etinne Campot". However, there is no source specified for the second entry. Both entries also didn't have links to the original documents on GénéalogieQuébec.com so I needed to keep looking.

I revised my search to use the information I'd found and I used the search term "notre dame montreal confirmation 1600..1700 registre" (without the quotes). For those unfamiliar with number searches on Google, the double dots, "..", instruct Google to search a range of numbers. In this case, I'm looking for web pages and documents with the year 1600 to 1700 specified. Of course, Google doesn't know they are years, but a number is still a number.

With that search term I came across the PDF "Register of Abjurations Drouin-Pépin Collection - From 1662" on the Genealogy Ensemble site. The PDF is from their "Register of Abjurations" post from 3 Feb 2015 and within the PDF it mentions "Microfilm #3140 - Diocèse de Québec - Registre des abjurations - From 1662 to 1757". But I'm looking for confirmations so why did Google highlight this PDF? It was this paragraph which helped explain what else might be found on the microfilm:

"Please note, the above microfilms does contain both acts of abjuration and acts of confirmation, for under the leadership of Monsignor François de Montmorency de Laval, Bishop of Nouvelle France from 1659 to 1708, acts of confirmation and abjuration were recorded together within the same parish registers. It does create confusion in trying to decipher if an adult who was confirmed was previously a protestant or simply a non-believer. Some of the acts of confirmations contained within this microfilm also list young people, or it appears to be so - Finally, do not expect an index of people, it does not exist - One must review each document one by one."

I now had a new search term to possibly follow: "Registre des abjurations". So, back to Google for yet another search and I put those words into the search box (without the quotes) and the third result was for a page in the FamilySearch catalogue. FamilySearch catalogue entries are often good since the material may be available online and for free.

That brought me to "Registres paroissiaux, 1662-1848". In reading the notes for the catalogue page two points got my attention:

• Microfilm des originaux dans l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec.
• Confirmations de l'eglise de Notre-Dame de Québec et autres de la diocèse, 1659-1771 et abjurations, 1662-1757
  

I was just at the  l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec web site and the confirmations and abjurations line described what I was wanting to find and in the time period I was searching.

So after signing in with my free FamilySearch account I could look at the digitized microfilm DGS 5471926. With 668 images to review I was not looking forward to looking at each page. However, this is where the microfilm information cards come in handing. These cards indicate where one item or volume placed on a microfilm starts and ends and they generally stand out when looking at the page of digitized microfilm images.

Fairly quickly I got to image 524. This is the start of  item 14,"Confirmations" for the Eglise du Canada, Quebec, Canada which was microfilmed on 10 Sep 1981 by the Genealogical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah at the Archeveche de Quebec.

"Canada, Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L99W-6DG9 : 16 July 2014), Localités multiples > Localités multiples > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1662-1848 > image 1545 of 1689; microfilm title card for Confirmations, Eglise du Canada; Archives Nationales du Quebec (National Archives of Quebec), Montreal.

I slowly worked my way through the images taking the time to read, and in some cases transcribe into Google Translate to help me with my very rusty French, the various introductory pages.

There on page 29, just like the "116 – Confirmations à Québec, Trois-Rivières et Montréal en 1664" post stated, I found the name Etienne Campot confirmed in Montréal on May 1664.

"Canada, Québec, registres paroissiaux catholiques, 1621-1979," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G99W-66KZ : 16 July 2014), Localités multiples > Localités multiples > Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1662-1848 > image 1563 of 1689; Etienne Compot, Confirmer à Montréal le May 1664; Archives Nationales du Quebec (National Archives of Quebec), Montreal.

Another digitized microfilm copy of the same page can be found in the "Registres paroissiaux, 1662-1848" on DGS 5468668. Yes, I know that this is the same name as the other catalogue on FamilySearch but it appears to be a different filming of the same documents. But it never hurts to always double check since different filmings may include other information or the images might be clearer.

That second confirmation date of 11 Jul 1664 took a bit more work. However, since I was already on FamilySearch I looked for church records for "Canada, Québec, Île-de-Montréal, Montréal". In the catalogue entry for "Registres paroissiaux, 1642-1680", which is for the Catholic church of Notre-Dame, I saw that the description of DGS 8633229 is "Baptêmes, 1642-1680 (comprend des confirmations, 1664, 1676 et 1678); Mariages, 1643, 1647-1650"

"Registres paroissiaux, 1642-1680," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3HC-Y3DM-6 : 13 July 2021), image 194 of 524; Etienne Compot, confirmation 11 Jul May 1664; Library and Archives Canada, Registre de la pariosse Notre-Dame, Montréal, 1642-1669, MG-8, G-19, volume 1.

This is the same list of names found in l'Archives de l'Archidiocèse de Québec but now found in the registers for Notre-Dame in Montréal but with a different date.

You never know what you will find as you work through the records and follow the clues found within.

Finding on the Ground - A Rural Route Address in Ontario

In a recent post in the Ontario Ancestors group on Facebook a person asked:

"Living in the UK I am not familiar with Canadian addresses. The one below I have been told refers to Rural Route 2, it is meant to be farm, but I am not sure it had a name. I found in correspondence from the 1940s and I am keen to find a more exact location if possible, as Google Maps isn't terribly helpful."

I thought I would do a little case study of how to possibly find the location of the property. Be forewarned, there are assumptions being made since this is all the information I had at the time.

The first step I took was to look in the "Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980" collection found on Ancestry since that collection does cover more recent, from a genealogy point of view, events. 

Screen capture of the results from searching the "Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980" on Ancestry with first name Margaret, last name Cowie, keyword Kemptville.

Knowing that Kemptville is the Leeds and Grenville United Counties the first entry from 1949 looks really promising.

Canada, Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980, 1949 Voters List for the Electoral District of Grenville-Dundas. Rural Polling Divition No. 46-1, Township of South Gower: 1 [3140 stamped], Mrs. Margaret Cowie; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Mar 2021); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm M-4836.

Looking at the line for Mrs. Margaret Cowie, the address appears to match exactly what was originally posted in the query. Of course, this is an assumption that it is the correct person since we don't have any other details but let's go with this. Just above her is listed "Cowie, Alexander, gentleman, RR2 Kemptville".  Odds are, but not completely certain, Alexander is her husband.

Assuming that is the correct household, where are they?

For that we need to look at the top of that same page:

Canada, Canada, Voters Lists, 1935-1980, 1949 Voters List for the Electoral District of Grenville-Dundas. Rural Polling Divition No. 46-1, Township of South Gower: 1 [3140 stamped], heading; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Mar 2021); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm M-4836.

We see that the voters list is from the Township of South Gower and is "Comprising the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Concessions of South Gower, and not including the the 2nd and 3rd Concessions of South Gower which were formerly part of North Gower". 

With the details we have gathered: name, township, and date, we have enough basic information for the next step, visiting the Ontario Land Registry Access site AKA OnLand. 

So what can we find in the Abstract/Parcel Register Books within the Historical Books section for the Grenville Land Registry Office (LRO)? After filtering by South Gower in the Township/Municipality box I selected the book for "Concessions 1, 2 , 3". Then it just became an exercise of looking through the pages. 

Screen capture from Onland.ca of the Abstract/Parcel Register Book in the Historical Books section of the Grenville Land Registry office filtered on South Gower.

There are 253 pages but that is easy (compared to some of the other books) since I don't need to read all the pages but only the lines around the 1940s.

On image 33 of that book I came across a transaction for "Deed Under Power of Sale" on 8 Jan 1941 from "The Commissioner of Agricultural Loans" to "Alexander Cowie and Margaret Cowie, Joint Tenants" for the Front half, 100 acres on Concession 1 Lot 6. The names and time period appear to be right. That just might be the property that is being sought.

Grenville (LRO 15), Ontario South Gower Concession 1, 2, 3: 33, G-3018, Deed Under Power of Sale to Alexander Cowie and Margaret Cowie, Jt. Tenants, 8 Jan 1941; digital images, Teranet Property & Registration Services, OnLand: Ontario Land Registry Access (https://www.onland.ca/ : accessed 20 Mar 2021).

So where is Concession 1, Lot 6 in South Gower? For that I went to the digitized map from The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project for South Gower. These maps were created between the 1860s and 1880s. 

Map of South Gower, Grenville County, Ontario from the The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project.

On that map we are fortunate to actually have a name listed on the property. Checking the Map of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville created under the direction of H. F. Walling in 1861, which just so happens to match the map from The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project, it would seem that the tract of land was occupied by a Mrs. Tripp around 1861. That matches up with the transactions found on the previous page in the Abstract/Parcel Register Book where I found an entry for an Alexander and Margaret Cowie.

What about putting that property on a map that includes current details. For that I popped over to Topographic maps on the Ontario Government site. Once I accepted the "Ontario Parcel License Agreement" disclaimer I then selected from the Navigation bar the option to Search. One of the options is to search by Lot/Concession/Township. So I selected from the various drop down boxes the township of South Gower, Concession 1, Lot 6 and it brought me to the property on the map.

Using the information from that map and a little bit of playing around in Google Maps here is where the property is on a map of today:

Concession 1, Lot 6 in the township of South Gower highlighted in a screen capture from Google Maps.

Is it 100% percent certain this is where the Margaret Cowie in the address we are looking for resided?

 Not a chance

I've had to make several assumptions. However, unless other information is forthcoming it is a good starting point. This short case study also shows how you can use various online resources to possibly locate a person just from a Rural Route address in Ontario.

Finding the Concession and Lot in Ontario in the 1901 Census

In several of my previous posts we've looked at the various censuses taken in Ontario, or what would later become Ontario, to figure out where our rural ancestors resided:

• Census of 1851 - Canada West: Searching with Ancestry or Library and Archives Canada
• Census of 1861 - Canada West: Searching and a caveat
  
• 1871 Census of Canada - Ontario: Searching
  

Unfortunately for us, only the "Nominal return of the living" or "Population" schedules for the 1881 and 1891 Censuses of Canada have been preserved. So we are out of luck with using them. However, we are in luck with the 1901 Census of Canada since both the Populations schedule, which we so often use, and the "Buildings and lands, churches and schools" schedule has been "entirely" preserved.

So off we go into delving into the 1901 Census of Canada looking for the concession and lot of one of my relatives who lived in rural Ontario. We will be using my 3rd great-grandfather, Luke McMullen, born about 1819 in Ireland as our subject. In earlier census enumerations he could be found in Lanark County, Ontario, Canada.

Much like the 1871 census of Canada where we first have to find them in the population schedule, we need to do the same for the 1901 census.

We are going to start on the Library and Archives Canada site's Census of Canada, 1901 page.

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Census of Canada, 1901 page.

While we are here, take some time to look around the page. There are links to details concerning the instructions to enumerators, other places on the Internet where indexes to this census can be found (including but not limited to Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, MyHeritage, and Automated Genealogy), and which sub-districts may not have survived. One thing to note is that what has survived was initially microfilmed in the mid 1950s and the original paper records were destroyed.

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Census of Canada, 1901 search page searching for Luke McMullen in Ontario.

Above is the search page from Library and Archives Canada for the 1901 Census of Canada with the details for Luke McMullen filled in. Keep in mind, that unlike the search system found on Ancestry or FamilySearch, the Library and Archives Canada search system doesn't make use of "sound like" or approximations in their search. If you can't initially find the person in the census, play around with the spelling of the name and also use the "*" wildcard in the search, possibly like "mcmul*" for "McMullen" and variants.

1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 81, sub-district f-2, p. 2, dwelling 17, family 17, household of Louis Darou; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 20 Feb 2021); citing microfilm T-6478.

Only one result was returned and we can see a clipping from the image of the census page above. There we see on line 47 Luke McMullen is found in dwelling 17, household 17, that of Louis Darou, recorded as the father-in-law. Lydia A, the wife of Louis, was one of Luke's daughters.

1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 81, sub-district f-2, p. 2, top of page; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 20 Feb 2021); citing microfilm T-6478.

The following details are needed to find the household entry in Schedule 2, "Buildings and lands, churches and schools":

• District: 81 (South Lanark)
• Sub-district: F
• Division: 2
• Page: 2
• Line: 42

Why line 42 and not line 47 where Luke is listed? Schedule 2 points to the head of the household within the Population schedule. So we need to record the line number for Louis Darou.

Now we need to go to the Schedule section of the Census of Canada, 1901 page on the Library and Archives Canada site. There we will find more information about Schedule 2 including links to a number of PDFs that will aid us in finding the digitized images of Schedule 2.

• British Columbia [PDF 1.08 MB]
• Manitoba [PDF 1.72 MB]
• New Brunswick [PDF 1.77 MB]
• Nova Scotia [PDF 2.25 MB]
• Ontario [PDF 12.4 MB]
• Prince Edward Island [PDF 720 KB]
• Quebec [PDF 8.60 MB]
• Yukon Territory and North-West Territories, and the District of Keewatin [PDF 1.10 MB]

For this example we need to open up the PDF for Ontario. Within we find the links to the images of Schedule 2. The order in the PDF is by district, sub-district, division, and then page number.

We can have the computer search for the name of the sub-district, if known, but often scrolling through the index, even one of 381 pages like that for Ontario, is just as quick. Here we find the various entries for Lanark South (81), Elmsley North (F) at the bottom of the page. There are two divisions for that sub-district so we want to pick the correct one. In our case it is division 2. 

A gotcha then appears...the page numbers don't refer to the page numbers from Schedule 1, Population, but to the page numbers for Schedule 2. So for Elmsley North, Division 2 there are 2 pages we might need to look at. Other sub-districts may have many more pages in Schedule 2 like we see for the town of Carleton Place.

We are going to click on the image link for page 1 of Schedule 2 for Lanark South, Elmsley North, Division 2 to see if we can find the entry for Louis Darou.

1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 81, sub-district f-2, schedule 2, p. 1, lines 16-22; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 20 Feb 2021).

Scanning down the first two columns of that page we can quickly find an entry for page 2, line 42 from the Population schedule on line 18. There the place of habitation is recorded as:

b. con. 10 pt. lot 27

So it would appear that Louis Darou and, also by being in the same household, Luke McMullen reside on part of lot 27 on the 10th Concession of the Township North Elmley in Lanark County, Ontario, Canada. We can now use OnLand or the land records on FamilySearch to find out more about the history of the ownership of that property. Maybe we can look up that location on a map and have a road trip.

But what is that "b"?

At the top of the page in the column headings it describes the code to use for the place of habitation:

• a. Name of Municipality, Township, or Parish.
• b. Range or concession and lot, or cadastral number.
• c. Street and house number.
  
• d. Or other description.

The enumerator is informing us that this is a "Range or concession and lot, or cadastral number."

How about a location within a town?

1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 81, sub-district 2-2, schedule 2, p. 3, lines 1-12; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 20 Feb 2021).

Here we can see the clipping for Carleton Place. In this case the street name is given but not the house number.

The same information can generally be found on Ancestry in the 1901 Census of Canada pages. However, due to the way the images were originally microfilmed, the Schedule 2 images are often found before the Population schedule pages for the sub-district and division. Instead of flipping forward to the Schedule 2 images you actually need to go backwards through the images and keep going past the start of the Population schedule for that location. Then, hopefully, you will find the schedule for "Buildings and lands, churches and schools" for the place of interest. Make sure you pay attention to the top of the pages to make sure you are looking at the right place.

Regrettably, much like the 1881 and 1891 Censuses of Canada, only the Population schedule for the 1911 and 1921 censuses was preserved.

I sincerely hope that this series of posts about using the agricultural or other schedules has helped you find your ancestors on the ground in Ontario/Canada West.