Library and Archives Canada (LAC) worked to quickly get the census up and running by August, and in fact had it up and running by the end of July. As with the 1901 census, LAC has only provided the images; they do not provide transcriptions. Many organizations, OGS branches and others are planning to do such transcriptions, but they will take time.

In the meantime we do have the raw images to perform searches. Understanding the way the census is organized should help with those searches.

Like most modern census returns, only the nominal census pages were saved and microfilmed. The quality of the images is, unfortunately, not very good in some cases. What is really unfortunate is that the original documents may no longer exist, as it had been the practice to destroy the originals once they have been microfilmed.

The images for the 1911 census are available in both Adobe PDF format and LizardTech’s Mr. Sid (which is what the 1901 uses). For those with high-speed internet connections, the PDFs seem to be a better choice.

The date of enumeration for the 1911 census was set for June 1, 1911, and included nine provinces (Newfoundland was not included as they did not join Confederation until 1949) and Yukon and Northwest Territories. More than 1.8 million additional persons appear in the 1911 census than had been there in 1901. [2]

The actual data recorded on the 1911 Schedule 1 [3] is almost identical as to that which appeared in 1901, except that only the month and year of birth are recorded (as opposed to 1901 which also included the day). In 1901 the Schedule 2 contained the address. In 1911 Schedule 1 now includes the address (Column 4). An additional column (#13) records the year of naturalization in addition to the year of immigration (column 12). There are also additional columns regarding employment and pay (#17-29). Strangely, there are a few questions (columns #30-32) regarding the amount of life and accident insurance carried by the household.

The 1901 census was organized based with 208 Districts, Sub-Districts and Divisions. The Sub-Districts were a letter intended to be between A-Z. However, large districts such as in Northern Ontario required more than 26 causing some confusion.

It is important to remember that the census districts are NOT based on counties; they are based on Electoral Districts (Ridings). In fact, the main reason for the census was to create the Electoral Districts. [4] Although many of the districts do share the name of counties, you will often find not all townships are in a given district, or a township may be found in a neighbouring district.

The 1911 census was organized differently. There are no Divisions, and the Sub-Districts are numeric this time. There are 218 Districts which reflected the 220 Electoral Districts [5] in the 1908 Election. [6]

When you view the 1911 images you will notice that there is a Sub-District (called S. District on Schedule 1) and an “Enumeration District”. You should ignore these entirely. Instead you will notice two numbers either written or stamped at the very top of the page. These are the District and the Sub-District numbers. For example, all of the pages for Toronto Centre (District #124) and Sub-District 1 have a “124 —— 1” written at the top of each page.

Urban areas such as Toronto are usually divided into Wards. Knowing the appropriate ward will help narrow your search. There were six wards [7] in Toronto in 1911. There were five Enumeration/Electoral Districts: Toronto Centre (124), Toronto East (125), Toronto North (126), Toronto South (127) and Toronto West (128). Each District incorporates streets from several wards.

When searching Toronto, it is important to remember that the boundaries for the 1911 census were based on the 1901 census results. Several areas around Toronto were amalgamated into the City between 1901 and 1911, but do not appear as part of Toronto on the 1911 census. Try District #138 (York South) or #136 (York Centre).

A final note. The LAC website contains a notation that “Microfilm copies for the Census of Canada, 1911 will be available for on-site consultation at Library and Archives Canada and for inter-institutional loan in the upcoming weeks.” [8]

In the meantime, you can view the census online at:

http://collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1911/index-e.html

Good hunting!