Born on St Patrick's Day: Happy 115th Mary

They say that its good luck to be Irish, and that the luckiest of all are those who are born on St Patrick's Day. No doubt this is what was said the day that my great grandmother was born. However, her life was not necessarily filled with the good luck that the superstition had predicted. As much as she had a hard life, her life was also an "ordinary" one of a young British immigrant to Canada. Despite that, the simple life she led in youth was filled with fun. She embrace the changing times, new found freedoms, and innovations. Its the heirlooms from that chapter of her life that fascinate me the most because they show aside to her that none of my relatives knew - a woman who was happy. So today, I am going to share the side of her that one of those heirlooms tells. I have a small black autograph book that was hers.  At almost 100 years old, the book binding has all but disintegrated yet the leather cover is in near pristine condition and the partially bound pages are al...
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Get to Know bac-lac: Canadian Census Records (Part II)

In my previous post (here) I wrote about the Canadian census collection featured on Library and Archives Canada (bac-lac). Although understanding where to find census information and what parts of it are important can be a challenge, the most challenging part by far is performing a successful search that yields a manageable number of results. As much as I LOVE to conduct searches using a Degrees of Freedom analysis (which I wrote about here), the limited number of search fields on bac-lac makes this a near impossible task. To further complicate things, bac-lac does not perform "fuzzy" searches meaning that it does not search phonetically or for names with similar spellings. This can be especially challenging for names that have many variations or that were abbreviated on the census return. For surnames that contain a prefix this adds another level of complexity as the prefix may be placed at the end of the surname. For example the surname "O'Reilly" may have been recorded as "Reilly O". Furthermore, Mc and Mac were often recorded inconstantly by enumerators. So how do I find someone without having to try a multiple variations of their name? 

Tip #1: Look for a family member with a unique name

Occasionally you will come across an ancestor with a name you have never heard of before. I know I did and when it happened I found myself wondering how the name was chosen in the first place because it was downright strange. This individual will likely be the easiest person for you to search for in the census as there are few if any other individuals in the area that share their name. For example I was researching a family with the surname Briggs. This was a common surname in the area and for the most part the family had generic names like George and William. There was one son though who was named Bird. Yes that's right. Bird like the animal. When I searched for him I often got one result as opposed to the 50+ that I got when searching for George or William. In another example I was lucky enough to find a family with several children that had unique names. The couple had daughters named Addington, Luwantha, and Amoranda. I have never heard any of these names before and apparently nobody else in that county had either because each of them were the only one with their name!  

Tip #2: Search using age and sub-district

This method works best for small towns where there are few children born each year. I use this method when I am not obtaining any search results. The most likely cause for no results is that there is a spelling or enumeration error. I search atleast three times using this method: their exact age, one year older, one year younger. 

Tip #3: Use wildcards (*)

Sometimes adding an "*" into a name can broaden your results to include the one you are looking for. This is my go-to method when I'm searching for a surname that starts with a prefix. For example if I was searching for the surname McDonald I could search with "*Donald". This would broaden my results to include any surname that ends with Donald. Conversely I can use the wildcard after a few letters. For example if I was searching for the surname Smith I could enter "Sm*" to include other variations. The same can be done for the first name. If your getting too many results with this method consider using some of the advanced search parameters to focus on the area of interest

Tip #4: Use a keyword

Keywords are one of the most overlooked parameters for basic searches. Generally I enter things such as the name of the town they lived in or potentially the name of  a nearby establishment. Even if you dont find them exactly on that result you will likely find them in one of the surrounding pages. For example I had an ancestor who lived next to an inn. The inn was always recorded by name on census returns as opposed to using its address. Even if my ancestor was not on the same page as the inn I knew they were no more than one page away. Although this is an uncommon situation it is an important thing to remember when your looking at a past census or a map of the area. 

Related Posts:

Canadian Census Records (Part I)

Canadian Census Records (Part III)

Canadian Census Records (Part IV)

Canadian Immigration Records (Part I)

Canadian Immigration Records (Part II)

Was Your Ancestor Double Enumerated?

New Release: The 1931 Canadian Census

Tips for Finding Your Family in the 1931 Canadian Census

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