Ancestry.com - 1851 Canadian Census

I know it seems like my blog is all Ancestry.com all the time, but they are in the middle of a big new content push and I feel I should explore it.  I'm excited about the 1851 Canadian census because its the first Canadian offering where I have actually had success.  It turns out, much to my surprise, that I have a Canadian connection through each set of grandparents...including my Italian immigrant grandparents.  Even though I have a deep Canadian history, I have been unable to locate any of my family in the few online venues - until now.

I won't go into a big discussion on the source description, except to say that not all of the 1851 census has survived.  All areas will be listed when you do your search, but not all listings will have active links.  Coming across a listing with no active link means that part of the census has not survived.  The interesting thing about these records is that the images you pull up on your screen come directly from the official Canadian government archives.  I'm not sure I've seen that before on Ancestry.  Another difference I've noted is that when you click on a record, you don't get an image (jpeg or Gif), you get a portable document format (PDF) file.  I like these records because I quickly found my great great grandparents who immigrated to Canada from Ireland and later came to the United States.  There isn't as much information in this census as we have come to expect in the US version, but it meets my needs because I am able to place ancestors at a particular place and time - time lines are a major tool in my research.  I haven't found all of my family members who connect to Canada, but I'm happy with this one success so far.

Comments

[Jackie Hostage]

Hi Tim,

Yes, the 1851 Canadian census is a big disappointment; I rarely find enough information to confirm that I have the right individual. On the other hand, the 1881 is really informative (and free through familysearch.com). For in-depth searching the Drouin database (available with the world subscription) is the place to go. You can also find a lot of willing helpers who will search for you through the mailing lists.

Jackie

[Randy Seaver]

Tim,

Thanks for the post. It reminded me to go grab the census images while it is free to US ancestry.com users. I just subbed tonight.

I blogged about it too, and linked to your site (again).

Cheers -- Randy