1901, 1906 and 1911 Canadian Census Indices Online

As a Public Librarian, I tend to be very intent on finding resources for researchers to use for free. Many family historians are quite willing to use an online index if it means it will lead them to the resource they can then view as microfilm, a book, other online resource, etc.

Ancestry.ca officially launched in Toronto on Thursday, May 25 with an impressive gathering of Canadian Genealogists and special guest, Shirley Douglas. Ancestry.ca, like it's parent Ancestry.com and its other divisions, is a fee-based research facility that indexes and, when possible, makes available the digitized version of the information. Their announcement at the launch? To have fully indexed the 1901 and 1906 Canadian Census by July 1st. Thanks to my colleague, Ruth Blair, Professional Genealogist of Blair Archival Research for letting me in on the event!

Yes, this resource will make life easier for those who are doing research and prefer to do it from the comfort of their own home. Additionally, for those researchers who have access, any Library with Ancestry Library Edition now have the Canadian data available which makes up Ancestry.ca. But, Automated Genealogy already has indexed both the 1901 and 1906 Censuses, so it's really easy to search their indexes, then head over to the Canadian Genealogy Centre and look at the digitized versions of the 1901, 1906 and 1911 census by geographic region. It's free!!! Don't get me started on the number of groups that have created their own online indexes that otherwise get overlooked. Check AVITUS, the directory of resources to see if the area you're researching has one. One example is our very own Halton Information Network which has taken it's existing Census index by name and connected it to the 1901 census images online.