Canada Census, 1901 - FamilySearch Historical Records

Canada

What is in this Collection?
The census day for Canada was March 31st, 1901. This is important because the census represents the country on this exact day, not necessarily the entire year.

A number was assigned to a district, a letter to a sub-district and a number to a subdivision of a sub-district. Some sub-districts also have a number, i.e. "a(1)" means sub-district "a1" and "a1" means sub-district "a", subdivision "1". There are some printed forms that were in both English and French. The responses that the people gave to the enumerator were either in English or French.

The national government of Canada has taken censuses every ten years since 1871 and every five years since 1971. The 1871 census covers the four original provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. The first coast-to-coast census was taken in 1881. Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949. For Newfoundland, there are few found 19th-century censuses that list names. They mostly contain statistical summaries.

These censuses list a large proportion of the population. Unfortunately, some portions have been lost, and some geographical areas within the provinces were missed by the census takers.

The 1901 census also contains a buildings and lands schedule for each locality. This schedule gives a city street address or a farm land description—such as township and range, or township, concession, and lot number—for most families.

What Can this Collection Tell Me?
Census records may contain the following information:


 * Names of family members
 * Gender
 * Place of birth and approximate year of birth
 * Age
 * Marital status
 * Religion

How Do I Search the Collection?
To begin your search it is helpful to know:
 * The name of your ancestor.
 * The place where your ancestor lived in Canada.
 * The approximate age of your ancestor.
 * The names of family members and their relationships.

Search by Name by visiting the Collection Page: 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.

What Do I Do Next?
When you have located your ancestor’s census record, carefully evaluate each piece of information about them. These pieces of information may give you new biographical details that can lead you to other records about your ancestors.

I Found Who I was Looking for, What Now?

 * Use the birthplace and birth year to search in the Canada Births and Baptisms (FamilySearch Historical Records) collection to search for family member's birth records.
 * Use the religion information found on the census to search church records for the family.
 * Search earlier census records to locate the family in Canada.
 * Search other records in the province or parish where the family lived to learn more about them.

I Can't Find Who I'm Looking for, What Now?

 * When looking for a person who had a common name, look at all the entries for the name before deciding which is correct.
 * Continue to search the index and records to identify children, siblings, parents, and other relatives who may have served in the same unit or a nearby unit.
 * Be aware that, as with any index, transcription errors may occur.
 * Guessing your ancestor’s birth year to narrow down the search.
 * Looking at the last place where your ancestor was living in the previous census years.

Citing this Collection
Citing your sources makes it easy for others to find and evaluate the records you used. When you copy information from a record, list where you found that information. Here you can find citations already created for the entire collection and for each individual record or image.

Collection Citation:

Record Citation (or citation for the index entry):