Canadian Genealogy Centre

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Census and Enumerations

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Census Abbreviations

"Religion" column

Abbreviation	Religion
B.C.:	Bible Church
C. (of) E.:	Church of England
C. (of) S.:	Church of Scotland
E.M.C.:	Episcopal Methodist Church
F.C.:	Free Church (Presbyterian)
M.E.C.:	Methodist Episcopal Church
P.C.L.P.:	Presbyterian-Canada and Lower Provinces
P.F.C.:	Presbyterian Free Church
R.P.:	Reformed Presbyterian
U.P.:	United Presbyterian
W.M.:	Wesleyan Methodist

"Country or Province of Birth" column

Abbreviation	Country or Province of Birth
B.C.:	Bas-Canada (Lower Canada, Quebec) and British Columbia in 1881 and 1891
C.B. :	Colombie-Britannique
C.E. :	Canada East (Canada-Est, Quebec)
C.W.:	Canada West (Canada-Ouest, Ontario)
H.C.:	Haut-Canada (Upper Canada, Ontario)
I.P.:	Île-du-Prince-Edouard
L.C.:	Lower Canada (Bas-Canada, Quebec)
Man.:	Manitoba
N.B.:	New Brunswick
N.B.:	(uncommon usage - North Britain, i.e. Scotland)
N.E.:	Nouvelle-Écosse
N.O.:	Territoires du Nord-Ouest
N.S.:	Nova Scotia
N.W.:	Northwest Territories
N.W.T.:	Northwest Territories
O:	Ontario
Ont.:	Ontario
P.E.I.:	Prince Edward Island
Que.:	Quebec
Q:	Quebec (the Q sometimes look like an L)
U.C.:	Upper Canada (Haut-Canada, Ontario)

1851 Census

The abbreviation F indicated that the individual was born of Canadian parents.

Marital status:

1891 Census

Residential dwellings were described using letters and numbers. For example, S2/6 indicates a stone house, two stories, six rooms. W ½ indicates a wooden house, one story, two rooms.

Under relationship to the head of the household:

1901 census

Please note that the following terms were used by the enumerators in 1901 and do not reflect current usage when describing a person's background.

"Race" column:

"Racial/tribal origin" column:

The use of "breed" and "half-breed" indicated a person of mixed Native and other background as noted in the following examples that were used at that time: