Canada Census, 1911 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Record Description
Enumeration for the 1911 census began 1 June 1911.

These records include population schedules of the census. They also contain indexes to population schedules of the census. The official census date was June 1st. The national government of Canada has taken censuses every ten years since 1871, and every five years since 1971.

Provinces in Canada were divided into districts, which were then subdivided into sub-districts. Each district received a number and each sub-district was assigned a second number. In the more-populated areas of Canada, schedule 1 was used to record the residence, date of birth, immigration information occupation and other details. In the less-populated areas, schedule A1 was used to record the month of birth, age, place of birth, the marital status, and religion.

Census records give you details about individuals and their families. They are useful for finding people and their families at a time and place. Census records are often checked first by researchers because a large amount of information may be given about individuals within a family group.

Since the boundaries varied from census to census, it is not easy to tell which Census District an eastern Canadian township or western Canadian village was in.

Record Content
Census records may contain the following information:


 * Name of each person in family
 * Place of residence
 * Relationship to head of household
 * Marital status
 * Date of birth
 * Place of birth
 * Year of immigration
 * Year of naturalization
 * Nationality
 * Religion
 * Occupation

How to Use the Record
To search the collection, it would be helpful if you knew the following information:


 * Name of ancestor
 * Approximate year of residence
 * Place of residence

Search the Collection
Fill in the requested information in the initial search page. This search will return a list of possible matches. Compare the information about the ancestors in the list to what you already know about your ancestors to determine if this is the correct family or person. You may need to compare the information about more than one person to find your ancestor.

As you are searching it is helpful to know such information as your ancestor’s given name and surname, some identifying information such as residence and age, and family relationships. Remember that there may be more than one person in the records with the same name as your ancestor and that your ancestor may have used nicknames or different names at different times.

Tips to Keep in Mind

 * Most of the records in this collection are in English, the collection also contains some French records.

Related Websites

 * The Canada 1911 Census at the National Archives of Canada
 * 1911 Census of Canada Indexing Project

Related Wiki Articles
Canada Census

Citing FamilySearch Historical Collections
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A suggested format for keeping track of records that you have searched is found in the wiki article Help:How to Cite FamilySearch Collections.

Citation for This Collection
The following citation refers to the original source of the information published in FamilySearch.org Historical Record collections. Sources include the author, custodian, publisher, and archive for the original records.