1931 Canada Census - released on 1st June

[susano]

I am having no success getting the 1931 Census on Ancestry.  Has anyone had luck?

ETA:  got it!!

[aghadowey]

Not sure if Ancestry have it but I finally got images here-
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931

Found large number of related in village (19 pages) and it does help explain things I thought I remembered. Copied about 50 households but I know some if not most of the others were connected somehow.

[melba_schmelba]

Couple of tips:

1. You can use this pdf to try and find the district you need to look in, comparing to the where the address shows on a modern digital map like Google Maps
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf002/31-80_5744023_1931Census_MAPS_DivisionsLinkedTo1924RedistributionMaps_open.pdf

2. Here, under finding aids
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=5744023

are pdf files with street indexes for the major cities of Canada. The first number corresponds to a district number, which you should be able to guess from the maps in the first link, the numbers then refer to the sub district numbers where that street occurs, as you can find in the link below

https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931

When you select a province, then district and a sub-district, it will confirm what that district's number is in the details recorded underneath 'Record Information – Details'

[RunKitty]

Melba,

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou...you are an absolute genius!!!!!!
So happy - this is exactly the sort of information I had been looking for, but couldn't find. 

Just found my lovely Grandma .   

I followed your steps.   Under Finding Aid 31-80.  I found the street name (in Toronto) and got the 1931 district number and the subdistrict numbers that cover that street.   

Then, I went to the list of districts for Ontario and found the name of the district that corresponded to the number from step 1.

From there, it was just paging through the subdistricts until I found her.   

 

I will use this technique to find the rest of my City relatives.   

Thanks again!! 
RK

[fhtess1165]

Melba - thanks for the tip re the Finding Aids. One would think LAC would make them a little more obvious - as in put this information on the Search page...

I will spread the word about this

Couple of tips:

2. Here, under finding aids
https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=fonandcol&IdNumber=5744023

are pdf files with street indexes for the major cities of Canada. The first number corresponds to a district number, which you should be able to guess from the maps in the first link, the numbers then refer to the sub district numbers where that street occurs, as you can find in the link below

https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census2/index1931

When you select a province, then district and a sub-district, it will confirm what that district's number is in the details recorded underneath 'Record Information – Details'

[melba_schmelba]

Melba,

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou...you are an absolute genius!!!!!!
So happy - this is exactly the sort of information I had been looking for, but couldn't find. 

Just found my lovely Grandma .   

I followed your steps.   Under Finding Aid 31-80.  I found the street name (in Toronto) and got the 1931 district number and the subdistrict numbers that cover that street.   

Then, I went to the list of districts for Ontario and found the name of the district that corresponded to the number from step 1.

From there, it was just paging through the subdistricts until I found her.   

 

I will use this technique to find the rest of my City relatives.   

Thanks again!! 
RK

I'm glad you found your grandma ! They also worked for me, although sometimes the street names aren't exact, probably because they sometimes only say the first part and miss Street, Avenue etc. so the indexer guesses what it is, sometimes incorrectly.

[melba_schmelba]

Melba - thanks for the tip re the Finding Aids. One would think LAC would make them a little more obvious - as in put this information on the Search page...

I will spread the word about this

You're welcome , they were posted in a thread on one of the blogs by the Archives, but you are right there probably should be a link on the main search page.

[fhtess1165]

Melba - thanks for the tip re the Finding Aids. One would think LAC would make them a little more obvious - as in put this information on the Search page...

I will spread the word about this

You're welcome , they were posted in a thread on one of the blogs by the Archives, but you are right there probably should be a link on the main search page.

I didn't think to check the blog post - had assumed it would be in a more sensible place. As a librarian, I'm used to thinking about what's easiest for the patron to find, and many, many patrons won't think of reading a blog post.

[polarbear]

News flash!

I don’t know how much indexing has been completed by ancestry but some of my searches have been indexed and are searchable by name with images.

PB