Sunday, March 24, 2013

My grandparents were married in Toronto on June 1, 1911, the same day as the census. I cannot find them listed anywhere, and have just checked the new version of the 1911 census. I've even checked page by page hotel census' in Niagara Falls in case they went there on a honeymoon! Perhaps they just missed it altogether and didn't bother. Any advice welcome.

June 1, 1911 is the official date of the census - the day enumeration began and the date each enumerator was told to use in questioning (e.g. As of June 1st how old were you?).  The enumeration process actually took several months.

If a person is missing from the census there could be several explanations besides them not being home.  They could be mis-indexed under names that would not be obvious or they could have moved before enumeration took place in their area to an area where it had already been completed.
 
Check the Toronto City directories for 1911-1912 to get the address where they lived.  Then use that address to locate who was enumerated there in the 1911 census.  

It's also possible they were enumerated as single or they were living in someone else's household and were mis-indexed under that surname - check their relatives or do a search without surnames.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

We have found a relative who emigrated to Canada from England in 1904. Both parents and two siblings died before 1921. There were three girls left. We have trawled through all the records we have access to and also newspapers but can find no trace of them. One of their brothers who died we believe was adopted.Could you point me in the right direction in trying to find these three young girls?


If the children were minors when their last parent died there may be court records.  While adoptions were possible in that era they were still rare and mostly private.
 
It's also possible the children were placed with living relations - did anyone else emigrate or is it possible they could they have returned to England?
 
Later this year the 1921 Canadian census will be transferred to Library & Archives Canada, once they release it for public viewing it may provide a few more clues.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Do you know if there are parts to the 1851 Canadian Personal Census missing?

Quite a few parts of the 1851/2 Census are missing. They were lost or destroyed so no copies remain.

For some areas the personal census was lost but the agricultural was not.

 For a list of Ontario census records, including what is and isn't missing, see our census project.