Fountains of Knowledge – Census Reports

Approach with Caution

As I discussed in my previous entry, the Canadian Census Reports can be a great source of information about your family and their vital information. But, you can’t take all the information at face value. Remember that information provided to Census Takers is oral history and can be distorted by the provider’s perspective.

In this entry we’ll look at the adventures that can happen when looking at the spelling of a family’s name.

In the 19th Century literacy amongst the general population was no where near the levels we see and enjoy today. Many people still signed for things using a “mark” as they couldn’t even write their own name, let alone read what they were signing.

When the Census Taker came around, they would ask the household representative a series of questions (211 questions in 1871). The answers were interpreted by the Census Taker and recorded.

The Census Taker would invariably rely on their own experiences in entering the names of the family as many providers could not spell it out for them. I have personally found my Grandfather’s name spelled three different ways in three sequential Census. One spelled it correctly, 1891: “Stanfield Allison”, the other entries were 1881: “Standfield Allison” and 1901: “Stanfield Ellison”. Many times, the names were entered based on phonetics or on knowing someone who spelled it that way.

Library and Archives Canada provides the following research tips and advise when exploring the Canadian Census Reports database:

• Keep it simple - start with just a name or a name and a place.

• Don't forget the * wildcard. Try Fran* for Frank, Francis, François, Franz, Francisco.

• Try searching by the person's middle name or nickname. Try variations like Lizzie for Elizabeth, Tillie for Matilda, Nellie for Helen.

• Some census enumerators recorded given names only by the initial or an abbreviation, such as M or Magt instead of Marguerite. Sometimes only a title was used: Mrs., Mr., Dr., Rev., Veuve [widow], Dame

• Spelling variations of names are common in old records. Also, many names were written phonetically, as they sounded to the person recording them. For example, Thibault, Thibeau and Tibo are just three of many variations of that name.

• Some people anglicized their names. Boisvert may have evolved into Greenwood. Johan Kuch might have started calling himself John Cook. Even the enumerator may have created his own variations, for example, an English speaker might have written Jean-Baptiste as John Baptist.

• There are many indexing errors and omissions in databases because of poor handwriting in the original documents or pages that are barely legible because of faded ink, very dark ink or other issues on the census pages.

• In some handwriting, many letters look similar and can cause confusion for indexers. Examples: u and m; w and m; o and a; i and e; u and ee; d and t; f and t; l and t; v and r; g, y, z and j; capital letters L and S, I and J. In old handwriting styles, a double s resembled the letters fs or p.

• Surnames appear different ways depending on how they were recorded and how they were indexed. Try these variations:

• For names that start with the letter O: Ohara, O,Hara, O Hara, Hara

• For Mc and Mac names: McDonald, MacDonald, M'Donald, Mc Donald, Donald, Donald Mc

• For French-Canadian names with an apostrophe: Lheureux, L Heureux, L,Heureux, Heureux

• Confusion over how names were presented on a page can lead to a given name being incorrectly entered in a database as the surname.

• Inconsistent use of ditto marks can lead to the wrong surname attached to a given name.

• In some Quebec census returns, women were recorded by maiden name instead of their married name.

• Discrepancies in details such as dates and places were common in old records. Dates of birth or immigration may have been recalled incorrectly by the family member answering the questions. Also, census enumerators made mistakes.

• Remember that databases are indexes to the records and are intended to reflect the information as it was recorded on the original page.