As for the possibility of his enlistment, go to:
www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/
There is a searchable database. It will provide his birthdate & regimental #. You will be able to see the front & back page of his enlistment "Attestation Paper" in his own hand -- & you can email it to yourself. As for obtaining a copy of his record, he has to have been dead 25 years before you can have it.
It looks like your relly was a baby in the year 1901 - which is the only online census we have
(www.automatedgenealogy.com).
The LDS has a flawed 1881 Cdn census transcript, but it is all we have to work from. Oh, & the 1871 head-of-household list in online at Archivia net (cited above).
Donna, you've given some very helpful advice -- but I just want to comment on a couple of items in your post.
First - the set of military records online that you've mentione is for the CEF for WW1. With that you can see the Attestation Paper (front and back) but to get the FULL record, you must send off for it by FAX or snail mail. No other method is allowed. The full record may contain much detail -- or it may contain only a little. Usually you will see info on the ship the man sailed on to go to England, a record of where he fought, any hospitalization or disciplinary action, etc.
Have you see the website The Canadian Military Heritage Project? It's quite good, it's at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~canmil/As for online census records, you've given Carol a good start but here's a few more:
http://allcensusrecords.com/ They are indexing the Canadian 1911 census. Also they have info on where various years of the census can be found online so it's worth a look.
Carol could also have a search done of The National Registration File of 1940 which was the compulsory registration of all persons, 16 years of age or older from 1940 to 1946. (a census substitute). See
http://naturalizationrecorsd.com/canada/ for details and an online form you can send to Stats Canada
Since his mother may have come over in 1930, there are also ships passenger lists (for Thomas too)
Unfortunately the records before 1925 are not indexed. To find a passenger you will need to know an exact date of arrival.
The National Archives of Canada (NAC) holds immigration records from 1865 to 1935.
Ships are on the reel, in order of arrival. You can borrow this reel on Inter Library Loan [ILL]. These microfilms
contain arrivals from all ports, (not just England). You can find the details at this URL
http://www.archives.ca/02/020202_e.htmlYou are also able to ILL free of charge, from Ottawa, to libraries in the US, and outside North America. The NAC
will allow your Library to borrow up to six microfilms on your behalf, per request. There is no easy way to search Canadian arrival records for this unindexed period other than reading microfilm EXCEPT for the period 1925-35
In cooperation with the National Archives of Canada, the Pier 21 Society in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has input the
information from passenger list indexes for the years 1925-1935 into an online database. I think someone else posted the URL?
Hope this helps!
