POST 1901 CENSUS PROJECT
Open the door to Canada's Historic Census
TOWN HALL MEETINGS |
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This page contains correspondence from Kathie Orr, Ontario Chapter, Association of Professional Genealogists, relating to the Town Hall Meeting held in Toronto. Her presentation to the meeting follows. Kathie attended the evening session of these meetings. From: Kathie Orr To: Gordon Watts Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 10:43 PM Subject: Presentation at Toronto Town Hall Meeting Gordon Attached is the presentation I made at the Toronto Town Hall meeting. I asked the moderator who had written the compromise position - he could or would not say who had written it, only that Stats Canada wanted our opinion of it. I gave the moderator 2 pages from the 1901 census - on ledger size paper - one was clear but the hand writing was as usual not the best, the other was one of the typical - almost unreadable pages. I thought he should see what we actually look at. The moderator had made the point in his opening remarks that one of the requirements for an enumerator was their handwriting be good. FYI - I am a professional genealogist - member of OGS, served on the executive of Halton-Peel and Simcoe County Branches and the province wide publication committee. - I am a past President of Toronto Branch, United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada and currently serving as a Branch Trustee - a founding member and Director of APOLROD (Association for the Preservation of Ontario Land Registry Office Documents - Board member of Friends of the Archives of Ontario - I have taught courses for the Friends of the Archives of Ontario, Toronto Branch OGS, Simcoe County OGS, and North York Board of Education Regards, Kathie Orr My name is Kathie Orr and I am here representing the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. APG is a worldwide organization with a membership of 1,500. As professionals we offer our knowledge of the availability of records, what records might contain the information one is looking for, were you find these records, and our experience with the content and reliability of the records. As you would expect we recommend that the government accept the recommendations of their expert panel, turn the records over to the National Archives as stated in the original legislation, comply with the existing 92 year rule and release the 1906 census now, the 1911 in 2003 and subsequent returns should be released 92 years after they are taken. As genealogists doing family history – we place the members of our family in their historical, -- geographical, -- social and -- occupational contexts, -- describe their activities and the lives they lived. The search is like a huge jigsaw puzzle you put together -- a mystery to solve, -- you become a detective. We look for original documents that prove the relationship between each and every generation. To research your family you work back in time moving from the known to the unknown. No one place holds all our ancestors information. The records we use were not created with the family historians in mind so we have learned to be creative in the use of many and varied records to document our families. One of the most popular records we use are the census returns, they give us a picture of our families at 10-year intervals. As genealogists, we know that many times the only way you are able to document our direct family line is to research our ancestor’s siblings. I would never of found my 3 great grandmother’s Elizabeth Jane Smith’s maiden name if I had not researched all of her children – it was only the marriage record her youngest child, who is not my direct ancestor that gave her maiden name - Ostrander. The census records told me who those siblings were. As Canadians we don’t know our history – when I asked mother and her siblings and cousins about their ancestors they told me that they were Irish and the family had only been here 2 or 3 generations – well I can tell you they were surprised when I found that their earliest ancestor born here in what is now Canada was born the 5 November 1795. His name was Simon Fraser and he was the son and the grandson of United Empire Loyalists -- my mother and her generation are 7th generation Canadian. Sometimes one has to research all the local families with the same surname particularly when doing families with common names such as Johnson/Johnston, Smith, Phillips and Fraser. You may end up doing a multi generation study, as one has to study naming patterns that are found in Scottish and Irish families and are passed down through the generations. If you want to make history come alive for your child tell them about their ancestor who fought in the American Revolutionary War, was a member of Butler’s Rangers and was one of the first 7 people who farmed the land that is now Niagara on the Lake – Harmanus House, or the ancestor involved in the Rebellion of 1837 and was at Montgomery’s Inn, and Navy Island - Henry Cole Having access to the entire census allows us to see our ancestors’ neighbours. Many men married the girl next door. The witnesses to important events in our ancestors’ lives often were the neighbours – the census is the only record that tells us who all the neighbours were. The population of Canada between 1901 and 1911 grew by such shy of 2 million and the immigrant population increased by over 275,000 . In denying access to this census, you are denying descendants of those post 1901 immigrants their heritage. It is usually the 3rd generation that is the 2nd generation born here who gets the genealogy bug. They want to discover their roots and make the leap back to the home country. Privacy Issue – I have heard that there is concern that the census will give us access to supposedly sensitive information such as annual earnings, education, infirmities, with classifications such as crazy, lunatic, idiotic or silly. Well this is not something new – this information has been available on earlier census records and other records that we have access to. We already have access to birth, baptismal and death records that are far more likely to contain information that one might call sensitive. I have found family birth records that state the child was illegitimate, death records stating causes of death that one might describe as unpleasant. There is a concern that my 90+ year old relative will be devastate to find out that there was a illegitimate birth in the family or someone had mental problems – well that has not been my experience – they were usually the ones that gave me the information or asked me to seek it out to confirm family legend. As genealogist we are responsive to people feelings – it is how we got people to give us their family stories. Confidentially the “promise” that the records would never be released and the government not being able to go back on a “promise given” Well I don’t believe that promise was ever given – only that the census enumerators promised not devolve the information they had collected and that information would not be shared with other government departments. If you asked people today what would be their concern about given highly sensitive information -- would they be apprehensive that a descendant of theirs might possibility be looking at the information in 92 years or that the information would be shared with other government departments and agencies now. I am sure we all know the answer – it is the sharing of information today that alarms people. But even if the “promise” was given – the government has certainly broke many more promises with real damages such as the treaties they signed with our aboriginal people. The compromise position is not acceptable. To say that your family is only your direct lineage is absurd. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 1998 defines family as “1 a group of people related by blood, legal or common-law marriage or adoption, 2 a all the descendants of a common ancestor. I grew up in a household that was made up of my grandparents, my parents and brother plus an uncle and aunt and two cousins. You will never be able to tell me that the aunt, uncle and cousins I lived with are not my family. Let alone all the other uncles, aunts, great aunts, great uncles and cousins who are and were part of my life. This idea that we can only do our direct line also shows a lack of understand about the family historian – my cousins be it first or 4 times removed – they don’t want to do the family history but they certainly want me to document their family and publish their family history. They do not have the time or mind set to do the work but they want the final result. All you have to do is attend a family reunion to confirm this. If we as genealogists don’t search the returns who will? Who is going to find my 78-year-old widowed great great grandmother Rebecca Smith who 1911 could have been living with anyone of 22 children and married grandchildren living in a geographical area covering at least 6 municipals and 2 counties. Who will find my ancestor who moved at least once every 10 years – I have found my great great grandfather William Smith in every census from 1851 to 1901 living in a different county. What if you don’t know the name of your great grandparents, but you do know the name of 3 of your grandparents siblings – who is going to decide what family is yours? The censuses are not indexed – except those that have been done by genealogical groups and interested individuals. If we did not have complete access, those indexes would not be done. In 1901 Toronto you are look at 6 Wards, 298 Divisions with say roughly 10 pages to a division and 50 names on a page that would have you reading over 150,000 names. Who but a zealous genealogist would take the time to pore through all of these pages? Have you seen a sample of a census page? What about the other users of the census records - Heir searchers settling estates, the provincial government departments who have to settle the estates they are the public trustees of? Community & local histories – done by historical societies, church groups, women’s institutes, and private individuals – these histories would never be done if they had to present “a proposed research subject and methodology and pass a peer review administered by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council”. What an elitist attitude. There have been many excellent volumes of local history produced by non professional historians - one that immediately come to mind is Gary French’s Men of Colour: An Historical Account of the Black Settlement of Wilberforce Street and in Oro Township, Simcoe County, Ontario. Many people document the history of the past owners of their homes. The Canadian government hired a researcher to find living descendants of the Fathers of Confederation – All of this cannot and could not have been done without complete access to the census records. Kathie Orr |
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