Thursday, August 8, 2013

The 1921 Canadian census...some amazing discoveries!

Today, August 8, 2013, Ancestry.ca issued the 1921 Canadian Census!
I'm not sure why it isn't on the Canada Library and Archives website.
However for now it's available for free, so I didn't waste any time in looking for my paternal grandfather, John G. Williams, and his first wife.
All this time I was told her name was Nellie so I was very curious to see if I could find them.
I have an old 1920 income tax form belonging to John Williams, and on it he states his farm which he owned as being NW 1/4 and Section 33 in Township 38. So I began to hunt in the sub districts under Saskatchewan, looking under all the 38 numbered districts. It only took me 20 minutes to locate him! I nearly couldn't breathe! There he is up above, on line 37 - 39. He is listed as 
Williams John G. with the notation "NW 33" beside his name.
Underneath is the name Ellen and underneath that, Edward H.
I was very surprised to see these names, as their first son, who passed away in 1925, was known as Harry. I assume the "H" for his middle initial was Harry. I find it odd to name a child one name, and call him by his middle name. 

I took closeup photos of the census, as I'm having great trouble with my printer and it won't print for me! Plus the actual census is way too large, so here are the sections piece by piece.
John G is 9th from the bottom; It shows a scrawl which I cannot decipher, then M for male, M for married, age 33, from Wales. His wife is F for female, M for married, and also age 33 and also from Wales. Their son is M for Male, S for single, and aged 11/12. I assume this means he is 11 months old so maybe his birthday was in May of 1920. 


This section shows John arriving in Canada in 1910; positive proof! This is my only proof besides a hand written note on the 1920 income tax form, written by his 2nd wife Alma May.
Ellen arrived in 1913. I will decipher the rest at a later date, and post more close up photos.
This is just SUCH an exciting day for me. You have no idea!!!!

By Loretta Houben

1 comment:

jenann said...

Haha! My Great Aunt was called Ellen (often spelled Elen in Wales, but she was English). If her brothers wanted to annoy her, they would call her Nellie, an accepted abbreviation of the name, but she thought of it as an old lady name. That puzzled me when I was about 9 and she told me about it because, by then, she WAS an old lady!