My 1916 Happy Dance - The Joy of Genealogy - Carnival of Genealogy Edition 65

The topic for this 65th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: The Happy Dance. The Joy of Genealogy. Almost everyone has experienced it. Tell us about the first time, or the last time, or the best time. What event, what document, what special find has caused you to stand up and cheer, to go crazy with joy?

Practice your Happy Genealogist tap dance. Click here for some radio instruction (yes, radio) from 8 January, 1941. "Tap dancing on the radio." The CBC Digital Archives Website, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/pastimes/clips/14556

Despite my tap dancing past, I don’t really jump up and begin to soft-shoe in a library or archives reference room when I find something great. I have been known to (loudly) whisper ‘BINGO’ though when I find ‘them’ in a historical document, newspaper or photograph! So far, I’ve never been reprimanded for this; I’ve even seen a few broad smiles in response.

There was the time though, very early in my genealogy life, that I called home to check for messages and heard a phone call from a live, yes, a real live cousin who’d seen my name in a genealogical journal and figured out that I must be ‘my father’s daughter’ and so related to her. I have so few live relatives that my feelings were quite obvious. Boy, were they surprised at work – to see calm, quiet Diane shaking with excitement! Still, they could understand this much better than my cemetery trips.

I’ve had some great finds – the will and estate file for Samuel Wood (1820-1908; b Lockwood, West Yorkshire, England; d Nottawa, Ontario, Canada) in the Ontario Archives in Toronto, for instance, was probably still my most useful genealogically. It listed the names of all his living children, with the daughters' husbands’ names and occupations; most of that information was new to me.

This last week the 1916 Canadian prairie census films were finally available at Cloverdale Library in Surrey, British Columbia, and on Friday I was able to go out and look at these for the first time. No dancing for me, but lots of Ah ha!s.

Some of our Swedish relatives emigrated to Canada after the 1911 census so I was anxious to 'make their acquaintance at last', so to speak, in Canadian records and reading through some of the census pages was very exciting to me as people I had known or met were alive in Manitoba or Saskatchewan or Alberta where this census was taken in 1916. My own mother is shown with her parents in Newdale, Manitoba. I do wish she’d lived long enough to see these pages with me (and to tell me everything she remembered about those names I don’t recognize!)

I think there may be some ‘happy dances’ for those with connections in the Springfield District of Manitoba. Enumerator Conrad Gauthier (bless him) took down the places of birth for many entries, mostly Canadian ones, but still – I noticed WALLACEs from North Dakota, USA and many names from Ile de Chenes in Quebec. These place names were later scratched out and the province or country written in, but the original entries are readable. (1916 Census, Manitoba, Canada, District 12 Springfield, SD 05, Library & Archives Canada film # T-21939)

Many interesting connections seem to be in the 1916 for me. I will be happily checking these out for some time to come. For instance, one of our cousins, John Gilchrist McNabb (b 1881, d 1956; son of Diana Gilchrist and Alexander McNabb of Fenelon Township, Victoria County, Ontario, Canada) came to Newdale, Manitoba in the 1910’s. He married Rose Isabel Younger in Manitoba in 1917.

In the 1916 census, a John McNabb the right age is shown living in the Strathclair area of Manitoba on the farm of George Henry and Annie Pattison. (1916 Census, Manitoba, Canada, District 05 Marquette, SD 10, Page 3, Household # 27 Library & Archives Canada film # T-21927)

Was this the same John McNabb? More clues from this entry - Annie Pattison, the wife of George Henry Pattison, was John Gilchrist McNabb’s sister. Also listed as living on the farm in 1916 was a Rosa Younger who’d emigrated from England in 1914. Is this how John Gilchrist McNabb met his wife?

I will have to see what else I can find. I do have some McNabb/Pattison photographs but they aren’t yet scanned or described. That will likely be my objective for the next Scanfest. More on this later.


For more about the 1916 census, see my previous posts -

1916 Prairie Census, Canada - films available at Cloverdale Library, Surrey, BC:
http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/01/1916-prairie-census-canada-films.html

Canada, 1916 - Taking The Census in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba:
http://canadagenealogy.blogspot.com/2008/08/canada-1916-taking-census-in-alberta.html

1916 Prairie Census, Canada - films available at Cloverdale Library, Surrey, BC

The 1916 Canadian prairie census films for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have finally arrived at the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library in British Columbia.

FamilySearch.org now has a searchable index for this census (no census images). See the link below to do a name search to assist you in viewing the microfilm.

If you are doing Canadian research and living or visiting anywhere near Greater Vancouver in B.C., the genealogy department at the Cloverdale Branch Library is THE place to go. It's the largest collection of Canadian material in the west with knowledgeable staff and a good collection of genealogy guides as well. Both Ancestry Library Edition and Heritage Quest are available - in the library only.

For a look at the Cloverdale holdings and information about Canadian genealogical topics, download a free copy of the Canadian Genealogical Resources: A Guide to the Materials held at Cloverdale Library, 15th edition, edited by Laurie J. Cooke, Jacqueline Haines & Stephanie Kurmey.

If you cannot visit, Cloverdale's Genealogy department offers a limited look up service at a nominal cost for specific records on microfilm, in print or genealogy databases. See the webpage for details.

Genealogy Department, Cloverdale Branch Library: http://www.spl.surrey.bc.ca/Programs+and+Services/Genealogy/default.htm

1916 Canadian Prairie Census index search, FamilySearch.org: http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#c=1529118;p=2;t=searchable

Canada, 1916 - Taking The Census in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba

'Victorious But Tired'. Postcard, unused, c.1915. The Daily Mirror, Canadian Official Series, (Photograph Passed by Censor). Printed in Great Britain, Published by the Pictorial Newspaper Co.Ltd., London, England.


John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections viewed portions of the 1916 Prairie census microfilms recently and has some useful comments on his blog. The timing of this was certainly bad luck for me as apparently I missed getting to see the newly released census films only by a couple of days. My own mother should appear in the Newdale, Manitoba enumeration and I am very anxious to see how many of ‘my Swedes’ I can find. I am surprised there wasn’t some ‘buzz’ about this at the ‘Genealogy and Local History for All’ conference – perhaps LAC had been asked one too many hard questions already?

The 1916 census is often called the ‘Western Census’ but, of course, even in 1916, British Columbia was the western province of Canada and B.C. residents are not part of this census. The 1916 population and agriculture census covered the three provinces formed from the former Northwest Territories and Manitoba (so Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba). Its effective date was 1 June, 1916, midway through World War I. The government’s instructions to enumerators reflected that situation and the season with special mention of questions relating to military service, for instance, and summer resorts.

Enumerators were to exercise “civility and expedition” and produce “clear and legible records...in ink of good quality” and were to be paid 4 cents for each living person recorded and 25 cents for every farm of 5 acres or over, and varying rates for other tasks and expenses.

As John noted in his article, many on military service were enumerated with their families. As the instructions said:

General Provisions
43. General rule: It is not possible to lay down a rule applicable to every case but generally...a person absent on military service...should be entered with the family...

The same was to be done for those at work elsewhere or living away temporarily – students, fishermen, lumbermen, and commercial travelers are all mentioned in this section. Construction, mining and railroad camp workers were to be enumerated “as found’, but those in military concentration camps or barracks or training camps were not. Enumerators were instead to “make diligent inquiry” at every household for information about any persons in military service or concentration camps, whether related or a roomer or “other person”.

Public institutions – prisons, hospitals, schools - were to be enumerated separately, however, hospital patients “whose period of absence is more or less known” were to be included with others of their households. Prisoners, no matter the length of their sentences, were to be enumerated in prison.

On 1 January, 1916, though, Canada’s Prime Minister Robert Borden had promised Canada would maintain 500,000 men in the armed forces. In doing so, he may have meant only to strengthen Canada’s voice in Britain’s war strategy, but, as volunteer enlistment slowed, the idea, or the ‘threat’, of conscription was talked about by many. It’s possible then that in looking at the 1916 census we may find ‘too few’ men of military age, if family members sought to evade having them listed.

A few comments from the Lethbridge Daily Herald illustrate some of the difficulties enumerators faced – even the weather was a problem.

30 May, 1916, page 4 “...Commissioner Barnes was in the city last Thursday to arrange for the work in this district but owing to the bad weather few of the enumerators were able to come in to meet him. Among the men who will take the census in Lethbridge are Messrs. Fairburn, J.H. Fleetwood and Hardy.”

6 June 1916, page 4, Editorial page. “Some silly people are circulating a very silly story in connection with the census now being taken. They attempt to mislead certain classes by telling them the census is a forerunner of conscription...Such a statement is an absolute falsehood....”

27 July, 1916. p. 5 – from Ottawa. “Owing in a great measure to conditions produced by the war, the taking of the quinquennial census in the west is proving to be a difficult task, according to reports received here. Where people were domiciled in boarding houses and have no next of kin residing on the place difficulty is experienced accounting for them. For instance, all westerners who enlisted for the first contingent are down as from Valcartier. Military records do not show where they came from and the people with whom they boarded are not able to furnish details. Likewise in the internment camps are many Austrians formerly resident in the western provinces, but whom enumerators are not able to find. Population returns indicate a substantial increase.”

LINKS

“More on the 1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces”, John D. Reid, Anglo-Celtic Connections: http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-on-1916-census-of-prairie.html

1916 Census Proclamation and Instructions, extracts from the Canada Gazette, 31 May 1916, Global Genealogy: http://www.globalgenealogy.com/Census/Download/Instr1916.pdf

1916 Census Statistics, Saskatchewan GenWeb (not complete, includes overall population and language statistics, but other material mainly for Saskatchewan): http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cansk/census/1916census.html

For more background on Canada in 1916, see the 1916-1917 Canada Year Book, on-line in Statistics Canada’s Canada Year Book Historical Collection: http://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb_r000-eng.htm

Newspaper articles found on NewspaperArchive.com through the Godfrey Memorial Library (subscription): http://www.godfrey.org

1916 Canadian Prairie Census available at Library and Archives Canada - only in Ottawa...

John D. Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections just let me know that microfilms of the 1916 Census of the Canadian Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) are now available for viewing at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and for interlibrary loan. Drat! I was just there, for goodness sake.

Hoping the Cloverdale Branch of the Surrey Public Library already has an order in.

This census is apparently being digitized under an agreement between LAC and The Generations Network (TGN, aka Ancestry) as was done with the 1891 Canadian census.

What do these commercial agreements mean to those researching their Canadian roots? More from me on this soon. Comments?

For more details, see the Anglo-Celtic Connections: http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/