Where is the 1921 Canadian census today?

 

My Grandma Sarah [Saggers] Rogers with my dad, George, and his little brother, David.  Snapshot taken in South Vancouver, 1920s; private collection.

Three of the reasons I'm anxious to see the 1921 Canadian census - my dad was born in 1917 and his brother was born in 1919, both in South Vancouver. My uncle David died young in 1927, so the 1921 census is the only one he will be shown in. 

See the article written today for the British Columbia Genealogical Society for a list of research helps for 1921 Canadian census research: http://www.bcgs.ca/?p=3146  Although today is the day the 1921 census is to be handed over to Library and Archives Canada, there is still no word on access to the films or digital files, on digitizing, or indexing.

Whose Past? A Public Forum - Victoria, BC June 3, 2013

This Monday night, June 3, 8 pm, at Legacy Gallery in Victoria, BC.

Whose Past? A Public Forum on Harper’s Review of Canadian History: http://activehistory.ca/2013/06/whose-past-a-public-forum-on-harpers-review-of-canadian-history/

Since Dave Obee, Editor in Chief of the Victoria Times Colonist, will moderate, I so hope the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper will feature this.

Open to the public; limited seating.

Family history Research in British Columbia, Canada? Free chat May 27, 2013

 Black and white 'Greetings from British Columbia' postcard; unmailed, private collection. 

Monday night, May 27th, 2013 at 7 pm right at the British Columbia Genealogical Society's (BCGS) website, there will be an on-line chat with the BC Genealogical Society’s Editor, M. Diane Rogers. (Yes, she is also Jane's Your Aunt!)

Do you have a question about the BCGS's BC Pioneer or the BC War Memorial projects, or about British Columbia research in general, or maybe how you can submit an article to the BCGS journal or website? Do join in.

This is an experiment in offering more communication choices for BCGS members and friends, so don’t be shy.

New 1881 Canadian Census Database on-line at LAC

A new version of the 1881 Canadian Census Database at Library and Archives Canada has been released. This includes "suggestions for corrections that were received from users in recent months". This is great news as it's frustrating to submit corrections and never see them.  Good to know new searchers will benefit from this process. Altogether there are 4,278,327 records in this database.

Revised district and sub-district information has also been added.

This is one of the projects Ancestry.ca has assisted with. A similar database is available there.

FamilySearch.org also has an 1881 Canadian Census Index. 

Sally Herbert, Somerset, England - a photograph

Among other things, I do collect stray photographs and other images. Since I have family from Somerset, England, this photograph caught my eye recently. It's identified in ink as "Sally Herbert" and was taken by Sydney Smyth of Waterloo Street, in Weston Super Mare, Somerset. Love her dress!

If you have a connection to Sally Herbert, or to the photographer Sydney Smyth, I'd like to hear from you.

Active History - at the National Council on Public History Conference, Ottawa, Canada, April 2013

ActiveHistory.ca is one of my favourite reads. Jim Clifford has now written an interesting post on "Active History at the National Council on Public History Conference: held last week in Ottawa, Canada. 

Jim has included brief notes on several of the projects shown or discussed. One of these is the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre at Algoma University in Ontario, Canada, a joint project with the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association.

The Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools, operating from 1873 to 1970, were on the now university grounds. This looks to be a great example of what's being done in Canadian genealogy and history with digital on-line archives. See a brief history of Shingwauk Schools here.

The National Council on Public History (NCPH) aims to make the past useful in the present and encourage collaboration between historians and their public. The 2014 NCPH conference will be in California, USA.

Sounds like an energizing conference. Reading a little more about these projects has made me feel so much more optimistic than last week. I'll be watching ActiveHistory.ca for more news and views from the conference.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Tell Us a Childhood Memory

Last night's Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun (SNGF) challenge at Genea-Musings was to "Tell Us a Childhood Memory". 

I haven't written too much yet about my childhood, although I have quite a few memories :-)  but last week the topic of school reunions came up several times in conversation and I said ok - I'd post my 'grad photo' to show off my then hairdo. 

So here I am. I've previously posted on Facebook the few photographs I had from the high school graduation ceremony I attended (even though I was never graduated since I left and went to university early). 

Now this photo my kids will laugh at - in however many decades they've known me, they've rarely seen me with my hair 'done'. But back then hairdressers, big rollers, henna, even occasional beer rinses that my dad reluctantly provided the beer for were the thing. (Was that beer supposed to make our hair shine? or give it body...?) 

Now seriously I did like beehive hairdos - they made me taller! As did those potentially lethal spike heeled shoes I liked to wear. And no, I didn't feel strongly then about any contradictions between great shoes and and being a feminist. It was all just me.

But what I really notice about this picture is - no glasses. 

I've worn glasses since Grade 3. My mother did tell me once that she was embarrassed that she hadn't realized I needed them till a teacher pointed it out. One of my favourites from my mum's stories was that on the bus coming home with my first pair of glasses on, I was excitedly reading out loud all the ads on the bus! 

Before that I must have squinted a lot as really since I started wearing glasses I hardly get out of bed without them. (And I've always thought having to look at fuzzy blackboards was why I didn't like arithmetic in grade school.) 

But despite their usefulness, apparently for this photo, I was vain enough to take my glasses off. Never since as far as I can see.  Perhaps this pretty much marks the end of my childhood. 

Waiting, hoping...for the 1921 Canadian Census

We've had a long wait so far for any real information about the open access release of the 1921 Canadian census to researchers - which should be scheduled for the first few days of June 2013 - this year. Statistics Canada is by law supposed to release the 1921 census to Library and Archives Canada June 1, 2013.

In March 2012, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) initiated a discussion about the release of this census in an LAC blog post with an enthusiastic title "1921 Census countdown!" .  A number of us have been (fruitlessly) asking for details ever since.

I haven't posted much about this here as - to tell you the unhappy truth - what's happened and may be happening to Library and Archives Canada and apparently to some of our national treasures, documentary and otherwise, has made me heartsick - and very often angry.

The 1921 census release is now the most immediate concern however.  LAC said originally that there was only a microfilm copy of the census extant and that "Library and Archives Canada (LAC) will digitize the microfilms for the 1921 census and make them available online as JPEG and PDF images."  Library and Archives Canada Blog, March 27, 2012 at 2:35 pm. That sounded good in itself, and we could accept a delay in on-line release for digitizing, but a little birdie may have let one cat out of the LAC bag since however; John D. Reid at Anglo-Celtic Connections reported yesterday that the census may already have been digitized. LAC has not commented on this, as far as I know.

Then, in response to one of my LAC Blog comments, yesterday Library and Archives Canada posted a note that the indexing of this census "will be done through a similar process such as partnerships" as has been done before. ( Library and Archives Canada, Blog response: April 18, 2013 at 9:17 am )

I believe my own opinion on the question of partnerships with Library and Archives Canada is well known.

As I commented on the LAC Blog, and similarly elsewhere:

" I certainly hope to see the 1921 Canadian Census available free on-line as soon as practical after its release this year – and with a free (and useful) nominal index. Volunteer indexing and access at AutomatedGenealogy.com would be my first choice, but perhaps Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has lost that relationship. Canadian genealogical societies and groups could step in too. While I am not against LAC *in addition* allowing or facilitating indexing, etc. by other organizations or companies, even if commercial or non-Canadian, I maintain that these relationships and agreements must be open to view and transparent and must *not* preclude free access, in this case, on-line, to our own Canadian historical resources as soon as practical after acquisition." (Library and Archives Canada Blog response, mdianerogers, February 3, 2013 at 10:58 am)

And I should add for clarity, that online access should be at Library and Archives Canada's website as with other censuses.

In the past, as in the case of the 1916 Canadian prairie census, LAC 'partnered', and a free index of the census and even access to the census images on-line was delayed a long time, in favour of an apparently exclusive commercial agreement (or agreements). This kind of agreement has no place at all in the case of our Canadian documentary treasures - and any past agreements made by Library and Archives Canada still need to be opened to public scrutiny, as any proposed new LAC agreements or arrangements need to be opened up for public discussion ahead of time.

My ROGERS-SAGGERS grandparents, with their sons, George (standing) 

and David (the baby). All should appear in the 1921 Canadian census, listed likely 

       in South Vancouver. David, born in 1919, died in 1927 so this will be his only census entry.

If you'd like to know more about the 1921 Canadian census, or indeed any or all of the national Canadian censuses, I recommend you read Dr. Dave Obee's latest book, Counting Canada: A Genealogical Guide to the Canadian Census (2012). In fact, I think this should be mandatory reading at Library and Archives Canada too. Since LAC handles Canada's Legal Deposit of publications, pretty sure they must have one copy there at least!