By: Pat Jeffs

Pat Jeffs — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:50:14 +0000

In 1861, in the large towns and cities of Canada East and Canada West, census forms were filled out by householders and collected and, possibly, inspected by the enumerators on the doorstep. The municipalities involved included Hamilton, Kingston, London, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto and one more I can’t remember.
The method of collection lead to a great variety of mistakes–those made by the householder, those made by the enumerator who did not always follow his instructions, and those made by transcribers who have provided the indexes that most of us use on Family Search and on Ancestry. Nevertheless, the 1861 census provides a very good illustration of the way people of the time, from the highest to the lowest, expressed themselves in writing and how they described the people and the things closest to them.

Comments on: Len’s Expert Advice: the Census is not perfect

By: Pat Jeffs