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Recording Canadian Census data

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This guide explains how to use GRAMPS to record information contained in the various Canadian censi. It demonstrates how to enter Repositories, Sources, People and Families. How to link them together to ensure that every piece of information is attributed back to its source. It also explains how to use the Clipboard and "drag and drop" to speed up data entry.
For genealogists with Canadian ancestors, the Canadian Census returns are a very important source of information. Censi have been conducted every 10 years in Canada since 1851, with additional censi of the western provinces in 1906 and 1916. Most Canadian censi are available free of charge in online databases maintained by [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/census/index-e.html Library and Archives Canada]. The most recent census of the Northwest Provinces, taken in 1916, is available via [http://www.ancestry.ca Ancestry.ca]. Other online resources include [http://automatedgenealogy.com/ Automated Genealogy] and [http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=census/search_census.asp Family Search].
As it turns out, this page contains a return from the street where my grandfather was living in 1901. As we walk through the information on this page, we'll see how to extract useful information and record it in gramps.
 
===Title line===
Starting from the top, we can see that the proper title for this census is "FOURTH CENSUS OF CANADA, 1901" though I prefer to change it to mixed case for easier reading, "Fourth Census of Canada, 1901." Centered on the page we see "Schedule No. 1 Population." This census has two schedules. Schedule 2 contains additional information, including street addresses, that is valuable and worth preserving. On the top right-hand side of the page, we have the title translated into French.
===Sub-title line===
Below the title line, the sub-title identifies where the census was recorded for this page. You can see that it says, "Province: <u>Ont.</u>, District No. <u>129 E York</u>, S. District <u>a</u>, Polling subdivision No. <u>2</u> in <u>East Toronto Village</u>.
 
===Sub-sub-title line===
Below the sub-title we can see the name of the pollster, <u>H.C. Moore</u> and the dates he visited the households on this page <u>April 1 & 2</u>.
 
All of this information is valuable and will be stored in the source record and source reference.
 
===Column Headings===
 
Below the title lines, we find column headings, in both English and French. The headings on this page are:
 
<dl>
<dt>Dwelling
<dd>number of the dwelling (e.g. house, apartment building) in visitation order</dd>
<dt>Household
<dd>number of the family or household, in visitation order</dd>
<dt>Name of each person in the family or household on March 31, 1901</dd>
<dt>Sex
<dd>M (Male) or F (Female)
<dt>Colour
<dd>W (White), B (Black), etc.
<dt>Relationship to Head of Family or Household
<dt>Single, Married, Widowed or Divorced
<dt>Month and Date of Birth
<dt>Year of Birth
<dt>Age on last birthday
<dt>Country or Place of Birth
<dt>Year of Immigration to Canada
<dd>year when individual entered Canada as an immigrant
<dt>Year of Naturalization
<dd>year when individual became a Canadian citizen
<dt>Racial or Tribal Origin
<dt>Nationality
<dt>Religion
<dt>Principle Profession or Trade
<dd>livelihood of individual
<dt>Wage Earner
<dd>specifics on individual's livelihood, including earnings
<dt>Education and Language of each person five years old and over
<dd>school attendance, literacy, languages
<dt>Deformities
<dd>Deaf, dumb, blind, unsound mind
</dl>
 
==Recording it all==
 
Whew! That's a lot of information and that's just Schedule 1! Clearly the Canadian government wanted to be thorough on this census! So, how do we record it all? We will need to walk through the following steps:
 
<ol>
<li>Add a census event
<li>Add the source record for the census event
<li>Add the source reference information
<li>Add the repository for the source
<li>(optional) Add source notes
<li>(optional) Add event attributes
</ol>
 
===Add a census event===
 
To do this, we begin by opening up a person in gramps for editing. Next, we'll use the '+' button to add an event. An event dialog will pop up. We'll then choose the event type "Census" from the drop-down menu and add the date, which we found on the third line of the census form. In the case of my grandfather, the census took place on two days, so I should enter "from 1 April 1901 to 2 April 1901" to be accurate. Next, we will want to record the place, which is East Toronto Village, but we can do better than that. Schedule 2 for this census tells me the actual street address, so that's what we should use. Next, we will click on the "Sources" tab to add our source.
 
===Add a census source===
 
Under the event sources, we again click the '+' button to add a new source. First, we'll fill in the section "Shared source information." The title will be "Fourth Census of Canada, 1901". Under author we should enter "Government of Canada" since this is a source record for the whole census, not just the street where my grandfather lived in 1901. We can let gramps assign the ID and move on to the Abbreviation, where "1901 Canadian Census" is entered. Finally, under Publication Information, we can enter "Library and Archives Canada".
 
Next, we want to fill in the Reference information. We know the date, so we can again enter "from 1 April 1901 to 2 April 1901". The next line is more complicated and the heading "Volume/Page" doesn't really do justice to what is truly required. Keep in mind that the idea is to put sufficient information so that someone reading your source information (other than yourself!) can use it to find the source material for his- or herself.
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