POST 1901 CENSUS PROJECT
Open the door to Canada's Historic Census
TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
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This page contains correspondence from Carol Martin, Historical Society of the Gatineau, relating to the Town Hall Meeting held in Ottawa. Her presentation to the Ottawa meeting follows. Carol attended both the afternoon and the evening sessions of these meetings. From: R J and J C Martin Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 12:41 PM Subject: Fw: Ottawa consultations Further to the Census Consultations which took place in Ottawa in December, congratulations to Bruce Elliott for his full observations about the afternoon session, and to Chad Gaffield who gave an excellent (and hard-hitting) presentation in the evening. I attended both sessions and was also one of the presenters in the afternoon. On behalf of the Historical Society of the Gatineau, I spoke of 4 main reasons why the Canadian censuses of 1906 and 1911 should be made available. 1) First, the census is the ONLY contemporary source of general information about characteristics of the entire Canadian population. (Actually, the 1906 census dealt only with 3 western provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but it is the only source of info about the population of those three provinces at that time). (Lack of other contemporary sources) 2) Second, the information collected is extremely similar to what was asked in 1901, 1891, and so on, and the release of that information led to no public criticism. The crucial difference is who was where and what they were doing in 1911, compared with 1901, 1891, and so on...One decennial census is NOT a substitute for another (Type of information not more "sensitive" in 1906 or 1911 than in 1901 & previously, but one decennial's information is not a substitute for another's.) 3) Only a portion of the census information of 1906 and 1911 has been analyzed, and there is literally a treasure trove of data waiting for discovery. (Compare the census headings with the published census tables). 4) Ordinary Canadians think that the release of the personal census, after 92 years, is "reasonable" and want access to it. (Evidence: petitions, private members' bills, lack of complaints re: release of previous censuses. Examples of USA and Great Britain.) The Town Hall Sessions are being "summarized" on their website by Environics Canada. For those interested in following this further, their address is included in the exchange of information (below) which I had recently with that group. Finally, I'd urge everyone with an interest in access to the 1906 and 1911 census to continue following the on-going Town Hall meetings via the Environics website. Carol Martin. Good afternoon everyone--fellow Canadians here today who are interested in the Canadian individual 1906 and 1911 censuses. I represent the Historical Society of the Gatineau, whose mandate is "to promote matters of historical or heritage significance in the general area of the Gatineau Valley"....c'est à dire, de "promouvoir des sujets ayant un attrait historique et patrimonial dans la région de la vallée de la Gatineau." The objective of our local history society—and of many other history-oriented groups—is to enrich the present by preserving and making available knowledge of the past. This includes written and visual material, artifacts, buildings— in our case, in a geographically-defined region. Among our Society's activities are ownership, maintenance and preservation of a historic cemetery; maintaining an Archives of historic material including photographs, maps, published information, copies of census material pertaining to our local area and genealogical data. In addition to monthly meetings on local history topics, we publish a regular Newsletter to keep membership informed on history-oriented events, and each May, an annual journal, Up the Gatineau! The aim of this publication is to encourage research into the history of this region, and to provide a venue for publishing the findings. The 28th volume is currently in the works! So—all this to lead into why the Canadian Censuses of 1906 and 1911 are of interest to historical societies such as the Historical Society of the Gatineau, and why we think that they should be made available to the public now. I think that there are 4 main reasons. 1) First, the census is the ONLY contemporary source of general information about characteristics of the entire Canadian population. (Actually, the 1906 census dealt only with 3 western provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, but it is the only source of information about the population of those three provinces at that time; the 1911 census was a full census of the Canadian population ). (Lack of other contemporary sources covering all the population.) 2) Second, the information collected is extremely similar to what was asked in 1901, 1891, and so on, and the release of that information led to no public criticism. The crucial difference is who was where and what they were doing in 1911, compared with 1901, 1891, and earlier. One decennial census is NOT a substitute for another (Type of information in the 1906 and 1911 census was not more "sensitive" than in 1901 and previously; but one decennial's information is not a substitute for another.) 3) Only a portion of the census information of 1906 and 1911 has been analyzed, and there is literally a treasure trove of data waiting for discovery. (Compare the census headings with the published census tables). 4) Ordinary Canadians think that the release of the personal census, after 92 years, is "reasonable" and want access to it. (Evidence: petitions, private members' bills of Jason Kenney and Mac Harb ( in 1999), Murray Calder in 2001-- write-ins from individuals (Calder alone reported more than 9,000 and counting; Senator Lorna Milne and others had their own write-in tallies...). Genealogy and history groups have been making their wishes known to their political representatives and directly to Statistics Canada, and the National Archivist of Canada, Ian Wilson, has requested and is ready to receive the 1906 and 1911 censuses. Also, lack of complaints re: release of previous censuses). Within these 4 main points, there is a constellation of finer points, some of which I would like to briefly touch on: 1) The census as the ONLY source of info about all Canadians. In 1911, there were 5,350,000 Canadians. If you go to biographies of Canadians at the time, you will readily find at least a hundred names, and perhaps a thousand: the politicians, business tycoons, inventors, officials of various groups... Where are all the others? ALL (or almost all) of the others were enumerated in the Census. Ordinary people. Like many of us. The census is the story of ordinary Canadians. In the province of Quebec, there was NO civil registration until after the mid-20th century. That means, if you are looking for a birth, you need to know where the individual lived, and his or her religious denomination, and hope that he or she WAS baptised. Marriages were only church affairs, but again you had to know which religion, what place. Deaths were not registered--burials were, again by a religious denomination, in a place. In the Gatineau region, land title records before 1900 were destroyed in the great Hull fire of that year. Sadly, almost all the notarial (lawyers') copies burned too as their offices in the core of Hull burned at the same time. Chelsea has 3 local cemeteries. NONE kept plot records (the Roman Catholic corporation, St. Stephen's, began doing so in the 1950s). The census is an invaluable record for family "reconstitution." The "personal census" or schedule 1 is all that remains of the 1911 census, as all of the other individual schedules have already been destroyed. This suggests two things: that it was kept in order to be turned over to the National Archives (as the Instructions to Enumerators indicate), and that as the ONLY remaining record about all Canadians during this period, it IS indeed a treasure. This leads to the second point, the questions themselves: Did the census-taker ask some nasty questions about criminal activity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, or some potentially objectionable characteristic? I went to Statistics Canada's library and obtained copies, so that we could address this point: Here's what was asked (in 1911): Name, address information, sex, relationship to head of household (e.g. brother, sister, wife, husband..) Marital status (for the first time in 1911 it offered "separated" as a category), age (with year and month of birth), country or place of birth, year of immigration, (racial or tribal) origin, nationality, religion, several questions about "means of making a living": chief occupation, (and a new category, employment other than at chief occupation, if any), some new information about wage earners including income data and whether or not they held life or accident insurance (an interesting point in relation to growth of industries and factories and worker protection, and the first time this question was asked in a Canadian census). It also asked questions about literacy and language (as did previous censuses) , and "infirmities" (deafness, blindness, lunacy, idiocy) (same as all previous censuses). The 1906 census was considerably briefer: it essentially asked name, sex and family relationship information, marital status, age, address info, country or place of birth and year of immigration to Canada. Fortunately, the 1906 census did combine a bit of farming information with the personal data. In only 18 questions, it managed 5 to do with livestock (horses, milch cows, other horned cattle, sheep and pigs). Canadians might be surprised at how little was asked, but better some information than none.... The "results" of the 1906 and 1911 Census were published, but only a portion of the information from 1911 was ever analyzed or made public. Those who worked on the census in 1906 and 1911 used techniques of the time: no computers, no easy way to do cross-tabulations or manipulate one variable against another... There is literally a treasure-trove of data WAITING that could give present-day researchers a picture of Canada's past. For example, there are not even tables of age distributions of Canadians in the reports of the 1911 census! Not only that, much of the information was rolled up at a very high level, so that, for example, all the data on certain topics was presented at the County or even provincial level. For those interested in local history of the lower Gatineau region, for example, the published census of 1911 does not provide the information. But access to the manuscript 1911 personal census could provide rich data for research on several topics--family and household composition, age structure, occupations, insurance... Information for future articles for Up the Gatineau! as well as for genealogists or researchers for other reasons. This is precious information which ALL Canadians also paid for having collected! The census was a the single largest item in the Canadian budget of the time, (other than costs associated with Wartime: the Boer War of the turn of the century and World War I which came in the second decade of the 20th century.). The HSG, like the National Archives, the Archives nationales du Québec, and other groups dedicated to preserving history, has noted a tremendous surge of interest in genealogy during the past two decades. With the internet, we hear on a weekly basis from people across the country and in the United States, whose ancestors once lived in the lower Gatineau region. As more and more people have the tools and time to research their own families (the individuals of the past to whom they feel connected) we find a general broadening of interest in the past. Isn't this part of what Canadian Heritage is about? Isn't this why we have a National Archives, and Provincial Archives, genealogy and local history societies? Isn't this why the individual member of the public WANTS and SHOULD HAVE access to the historic Canadian census 92 years after the data was collected? The Historical Society of the Gatineau believes that this is the case. The proceedings of the Expert Panel (reported in January 2000) suggested various steps which could be followed to make the 1906 and 1911 censuses available, and the relatively recent Privacy Act (1983) has provided for access to previous censuses after 92 years. It seems like a good rule, and provoked no criticism. It is surely also important to include a STATED provision in FUTURE censuses, specifically providing for release after 92 years, along with a mechanism (already suggested by Senator Milne) to allow individuals who, after 92 years, wish not to have their information released, to so indicate this. The Census Manuals (instructions to enumerators) and the "rules of the game" at the time of 1911 are nearly identical to those of 1901 and previous censuses. They remind enumerators to write clearly because the census will be placed in the National Archives of Canada (albeit without a specific release date mentioned then). The 1983 Privacy Act arrived at a distinctively Canadian solution for releasing the 1901 and 1891 census data, to make them public after 92 years. This seems particularly "Canadian" in flavour, as release after 92 years differs from the American "72 year" rule and the British 100-year period; and it also comes in a non-census year, making it easier to handle). It also deals with a time when the lifespan of Canadians was considerably less than 92 years...as it still is). It is now very late to ask those who were actually enumerated in either of those censuses. HOWEVER: ask any senior, still alive, who was enumerated then. I did ask one of the Historical Society of the Gatineau members, 94-year-old William Murray, and he suggests we get on with it! So-let's get going with steps to make the 1906 and 1911 census data available to us all. Thank you. |
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