Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906

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Interpreting the Records

While a few pages from Schedule 2 are still in existence, the majority of the records consist of Schedule 1. Below you will find a detailed description of a Schedule and the meaning of each heading found on that schedule. Unless otherwise noted, this information has been drawn from the "Instructions Relating to All Schedules" and "Instructions for Schedule 1" published in the Canada Gazette.⁷

• Schedule 1 (Population and Live Stock)
• Interpreting the 1906 Census Pages
• The Questions
• Agriculture - Some Summary Results
• 1906 Census References

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Schedule 1 (Population and Live Stock)

Schedule 1 was created to enumerate the population of the "provinces by name, and of taking a record of all domestic live stock ... whether owned or kept in cities, towns and villages or on farms, ranches or elsewhere." The head of the family was to be listed first, with the others listed after 'in regular order'. It was the responsibility of the head to provide the enumerator with the information. If the head could not provide information about a household member, and the person was not present at the time of enumeration, a "Special Form A" was to be completed by the missing individual and the information about the person was to be entered by the enumerator into Schedule 1 with the family with which the individual lived.

A family was defined as "parents and sons and daughters united in a living and housekeeping community; (that may be extended to) ... include other relatives and servants." A household "may include all persons in a housekeeping community, whether related by ties of blood or not, but usually with one of their number occupying the position of head."

Single people, living alone, in a 'special dwelling' and performing their own housekeeping were to be considered households. Those living alone and renting rooms from someone, even if they ate meals elsewhere, were to be considered part of the homeowner's household.

In cases where members of a family (or household) were temporarily absent from their home (or usual place of habitation), they were to be dealt with under the concept of a de jure system of enumeration. This means that people were to be enumerated based on where they usually lived, not where they were at the time. The general rule to determine where a person lived was that if an individual was away for a fixed period of time (for example, at school, working on a farm, etc), they were to be listed with their family; however, if the person was beginning an independent life with no plans of returning to their former home, then they were to be entered with their new household.

An institution included "such establishments as hospitals, asylums, poor houses, prisons, penitentiaries, schools of learning, barracks, etc,." The inhabitants were to be listed under the institution if the individuals had no outside home. If an outside address did exist for the person, the post office address was to be entered in column 9 for the individual. Those who worked in the institution (for example, attendants, cooks etc.) were to be counted as members of their own household, if they had one or with the household of the head of the institution.

Column 1 of the census was to consist of a numbering of the family or household in order of visitation. Two or more families that occupied the same house were to be numbered separately.

Interpreting the 1906 Census Pages

At the top of each page, the province, the name of the electoral district, the number of the sub-district or other unit of enumeration and the name of the city, town or village in which the sub-district was located was to be entered. The township was also to be entered into Column 11. In some situations, this did not occur and the enumerator filled in the header on the first page only, and on the subsequent pages simply indicated the page number.

Each line of the census was numbered, and each person to be enumerated received one line. All entries were handwritten in English or French. The information was recorded by the enumerator as given by the "head" of the household or institution.

In the 1906 Census, a certain input standardization was expected of enumerators:

• Items to be counted as zero were to be indicated by a dash  --  or a blank spot.
• The months of the year were to be indicated by the first syllable of each, for example "Jan." for January, "Sept." for September, etc. May, June and July, were to be written in full.
• The names of Provinces and Territories were to be abbreviated as follows:
  • B.C. - British Columbia
  • Man. - Manitoba
  • N.B. - New Brunswick
  • N.S. - Nova Scotia
  • O. - Ontario
  • P.E.I. - Prince Edward Island
  • Q. - Quebec
  • U. - Ungava
  • NWT - Northwest Territories
  • Alb. - Alberta
  • Sask. - Saskatchewan
  • Yuk. - Yukon

For census enumeration, provinces were divided into census districts, which in turn were divided into sub-districts. Census districts generally corresponded with electoral districts, cities and counties, although census districts and county boundaries did not always coincide (and districts could even disappear from one census to the next). Sub-districts approximated towns, townships and city wards. Villages and small towns were usually enumerated as part of the township or parish of which they were part.

The Questions

Population

Column 2 - Names of Each Person in Family
Column 3 - Relation to Head of Family
Column 4 - Sex
Column 5 - Married, Single, Widowed or Divorced
Column 6 - Age
Column 7 - Country or Place of Birth
Column 8 - Year of Immigration to Canada
Column 9 - Post Office Address

The Name of Each Person in the Family was to be entered with the surname (or last name) first. If applicable, a middle initial could be entered.

Under Relationship to Head of Family, the head of the family (or household or institution) was to be entered as such (ie: head), with the remaining members of the group indicated through their relation to the head (ie: wife, son, daughter, servant, boarder, lodger, partner, etc).

Those persons in an institution could be described as officer, inmate, patient, prisoner, pupil, etc.

Sex was to be denoted by 'm' for male and 'f' for female.

Married, Single, Widowed or Divorced were to be designated by 's' (single), 'm' (married), 'w' (widowed) and 'd' (divorced). Individuals who lived separately were still to be counted as married.

In 1906, 313,214 males and 198,520 females claimed to be single, 144,949 males and 132,745 females to be married, 7,934 males and 11,244 females to be widowed and 160 males and 97 females to be divorced.⁸

The Age to be entered for those over one year was that which the individual had obtained on their last birthday. For those under one year of age, the month and date of birth was to be entered - for example Aug. 5.

For those born outside of Canada, Country or Place of Birth, was to be designated by the name of the country - for example England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France, etc. If the person was born in Canada, the name of the Province or Territory was to be given.

Of the 808,863 people enumerated in 1906, 444,366 claimed to have been born in Canada. Of the remainder, 122,063 listed the British Islands as their origins (and 1,499 the British possessions), 90,738 the United States, 58,546 Austria-Hungary, 34,104 Russia, 24,129 Scandinavia, 14,191 Germany, 4,925 France, 3,581 Belgium and Holland, 8,816 other countries and 1,905 claimed to have been born at sea, or did not answer the question.⁹. Of the total immigrant population of 364,706, 233,457 people entered Canada between 01 January 1901 and 24 June 1906.¹⁰

The total population of the Indian Reserves was 18,629, which represented a decrease of 618 individuals from 1901. This decrease was assumed to be due to the redistribution of territory¹¹. With the change in territory and immigration to the new provinces, Aboriginals represented 2.30% of the total population of the Northwest Provinces in 1906, as opposed to 4.58% in 1901.¹²

Under Year of Immigration to Canada, the year in which the individual moved to Canada from another country was to be entered.

The Post Office address was to be entered for the Head of the family only, however, if the person was being counted as with their family under the de jure system, their other address was to be entered in this column.

Location

Column 10 - Section
Column 11 - Township
Column 12 - Range
Column 13 - Meridian

The location of each family referred to their place of residence. In column 10, the number of the section was to be entered, column 11 the township, column 12 the range and column 13 the lot number. In parishes, the name was to be entered in columns 10 and 11 (section and township) and the land was to be described in columns 12 and 13 (range and meridian). In cities, towns or villages the name of the street was to be entered in columns 10 and 11 and the number of the house or lot in column 12.

In 1906, the six largest cities in the Northwest Provinces were Winnipeg (90,153 people), Calgary (11,967), Edmonton (11,167), Brandon (10,408), Moosejaw (6,249) and Regina (6,169)¹³ . The large population of Winnipeg was due to its use as a transfer point for people heading further west, and its base as an industrial and commercial centre.¹⁴

In 1906, 30.23% of the population of the Northwest Provinces lived in urban areas - 37.76% in Manitoba, 18.80% in Saskatchewan and 31.29% in Alberta.¹⁵

Live Stock

Column 14 - Horses, All Ages
Column 15 - Milk cows
Column 16 - Other horned or neat cattle, all ages
Column 17 - Sheep and lambs, all ages
Column 18 - Hogs and pigs, all ages

In the live stock columns, the number of domestic animals of each type owned or held at the time of the census taking, were to be entered in the columns, wherever the animals were held - on farms, ranches, cities, towns, villages, etc. If the farm or ranch was held in company or partnership, or by a non-resident owner or leaseholder, the name of the organization was to be entered on the schedule, with the name and post office address of the head office on the same line. The entries related to the animals, however, were to be made opposite the name of the resident manager, or whoever was in charge of the farm.

On average, each farm in the Northwest Provinces held, 5.58 horses, 15.88 cattle (including dairy cows, oxen, and beef cattle), 2.48 sheep and 3.58 pigs in 1906. Farms in Alberta generally held more horses, cattle and sheep than those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.¹⁶

Agriculture - Some Summary Results

The census of Agriculture (Schedule 2) determined that the total area of the Northwest Provinces represented 357,016,778 acres. Of these, 8,327,970 acres were under cultivation, which represented a total of approximately 2.33% of the total land. 7,894,666 of the cultivated acres were used to grow wheat, barley and oats.¹⁷

The 8,327,970 acres included 122,398 farms (36, 141 in Manitoba, 55,971 in Saskatchewan and 30,286 in Alberta). The number of farms did not include ranches, although the number of 'only' ranches was viewed as negligible, as many individuals both ranched and farmed.¹⁸

1906 Census References

For further information about the Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906, you may wish to consult:

• The Canada Gazette, Number 48, Volume XXXIX, Ottawa, Saturday, May 26, 1906, pages 2567-2589
• The Census Office, Census of Population and Agriculture of the Northwest Provinces- Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta - 1906. Ottawa, 1907.

Footnotes

⁷Canada Gazette, Saturday May 26 1906. Number 48, Volume XXXIX. Ottawa. Pages 2582-2584.

⁸Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xiii.

⁹Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xiv

¹⁰Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xvi.

¹¹Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xvii

¹²Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xviii.

¹³Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xix.

¹⁴Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xxi.

¹⁵Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xxi.

¹⁶Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xxiv.

¹⁷Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xxv-xxvi.

¹⁸Census of Population and Agriculture of the NorthWest Provinces - Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - 1906. Page xxii-xxiii.