Library and Archives Canada
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Census of 1851 (Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)
Search Help
The database contains 2,459 records. Each record consists of the following fields: Province or Colony, District Name, District Number, Sub-district Name and Description, Sub-district Number, Reference, and Microfilm Reel Number.
Geography is the key to using this database successfully. The 1851 Census was conducted in accordance with census districts and sub-districts. The database is indexed by province or colony and by district and sub-district. Therefore, knowledge of the districts and sub-districts is of great value in locating either an individual or a geographic location.
To provide assistance with district names and sub-district names or descriptions, a list of Census Districts and Sub-districts is provided.
The search screen has many fields into which you can enter a value:
- The Province or Colony is a dropdown list allowing you to retrieve all the references for a specific province or colony. This field can also be used in combination with the Geographic Location field. It can also be used in combination with a district number or a sub-district number which is not unique to a specific province or colony. To determine a valid search term, you can consult the list of Census District and Sub-district Names.
- Geographic Location is actually a keyword field that allows you to enter any place name, whether it is a county, city, township, village, or parish. If that name has been used to identify a census district or sub-district, a results set will be returned.
- District Name is the official name given to the Census District by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics. In some cases, district names correspond to county names.
- A District Number was assigned to each Census District by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics for administrative purposes. District Number can be used to quickly retrieve a previous result by using it in combination with a province.
- When entering a single digit number (e.g. 2), enter the character * following the number (e.g. 2*).
- A Sub-district Name was assigned to each area within each Census District. The names of sub-districts often correspond to place names within a county, and can include ward, town, village or parish names. Where a sub-district name was not assigned, a description of the area is provided, when available.
- A Sub-district Number was also assigned by the Dominion Bureau of Statistics for administrative purposes and the numbers are unique only within a Census District. A sub-district number can be used to quickly retrieve a previous result by using it in combination with a district name or number.
- When entering a single digit number (e.g. 2), enter the character * following the number (e.g. 2*).
- Microfilm Reel Number enables you to retrieve all the records on the same microfilm reel.
- The Keyword search field enables you to search any of the above fields alone or in combination.
Results List
A successful query will return a result set page with the number of results determined by the number of records matching the search string and the number of references per pages (defaults to 20 references per page).
Each result page will display a line above the first result which indicates the search term(s) used and the number of successful hits or references.
A successful reference will contain the following fields:
Province/Colony:
District Name:
District Number:
Sub-District Name:
Description:
Sub-District Number:
Schedule:
Reference:
Microfilm:
Click on Associated images in order to view the images in JPEG or PDF format; you will be taken to another page.
Item Display
This page allows you to access the images in JPG or PDF format. For your convenience, information from the following fields has been repeated:
Province/Colony:
District Name:
District Number:
Sub-District Name:
Description:
Sub-District Number:
Schedule:
Reference:
Microfilm Reel Number:
Click on the appropriate link to see a digitized image of the page of interest to you.
You can print the images or save the images on your own computer.
To print a copy of a scanned image in JPEG format, right click on the image, select copy, then paste to your word processing software, using the Edit: Paste Special Feature: Device Independent Bitmap.
To open a PDF file, you must download the free Acrobat Reader software available from Adobe Systems Incorporated (http://get.adobe.com/reader/). If you have trouble installing or using Acrobat Reader, visit the Adobe Acrobat Reader support page (www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/help/011-300-e.html#a).
When you open a PDF image, the image will be displayed inside the current browser window. Use the "Back" button to return to the list of available images.
Volunteers with the Automated Genealogy project are indexing these census records. If you find a reference of interest, you can link to the image of the actual page to see the complete details for that individual. For additional panning and zoom features, you should note the reference (District, sub-district and page number) and then access the page from our database rather than linking to the image from Automated Genealogy.
Please note that spelling variations of names are common. Also, it is sometimes difficult for indexers to interpret the handwriting of the enumerators, especially on pages with poor legibility. If you cannot find a reference in the index, you should search the census pages for the place where your ancestors resided.
The Automated Genealogy Index to the 1851 Census of Canada
Published indexes exist for some places. Search our library catalog using the Title Keyword function, with the keywords census and the place name (e.g. for a town, township, county or province).
The digital images within this database are copies of the original microfilm records held by Library and Archives Canada. 1851 Census images for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are presented with the support of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick [http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/Default.aspx?L=EN] and Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management [www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm].
