Indexing the 1901 Census entries for Cobourg, Northumberland Co, Ontario, Canada
The Cobourg Census Project is a gigantic task I've held upon my own shoulders, but I know it will help so many people like myself interested in their roots. I am transcribing the census records from the public database at the Canadian National Archives website, which contains images from the entire 1901 Canadian Census. I thought that in transcribing at least one city's census records it would encourage others to do the same and get some sort of a bigger project going among the genealogical community. My research deals primarily with the cities of Cobourg, Kingston, and Toronto in Ontario, but I have some relatives scattered elsewhere. Later on, I may transcribe another city or two, but it really is a tremendous, laborious task.
The Cobourg Census Project will always be free of charge because I want to do all that I can to help the already very giving and generous genealogical community. Alone we may run into brick walls, but together, sharing our experiences, we can overcome even the worst troubles a genealogist will face and find more and more people to add to our trees. The ever importance of source documentation should never be lost as we continue to help each other and together we can come up with wonderful, professional genealogies.
I am only a teenager, but look forward to my future in genealogical research. I look forward to helping others and hope to see an even more giving genealogical community in the future. Like I said, together we can do great things and overcome even the worst problems we will face. I hope this project will help and inspire others as they continue with their own research.
The Cobourg Census Project is quite simple. I transcribed 1901 census records for the city of Cobourg. Each individual in the census gets a line in my database. Their line will contain the following information for them: where they were found in the census itself, street, family number (which will give other people in their household), surname, given name, sex, relationship to the head of the household, date of birth, place of birth, year of immigration, ethnicity, and religion. I ommited a few columns from the census as transcribing everything would be nearly impossible, but these are maybe the most important pieces of information for genealogists. I transcribe records precisely as I see them. If there is an obvious misspelling (example: Margret instead of Margaret), I will still not change it - again transcribing exactly what I see. Be aware that I may have made errors - I am not perfect - however I feel the database is very accurate. Some words and numbers may have been illegible on the census, but I will try my best to transcribe them. I at least make an attempt at the surname. If the given name is too difficult to read I may in very rare circumstances put "Miss", "Mrs.", or "Mr." in correspondence with their sex and marital status. For relationships, I may put "Unknown" if I can not read what is given. Unknown may also appear under other categories when something is in illegible. Under religion you will find listings of "Other". These include Protestant dominations other than Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Church of England. Whenever you see "Not listed" it means the original census didn't give this information. Finally, whenever you see "N/A" it means that this information didn't appear, but it was not neccessary to be given by the census taker anyways. For example, those born in Ontario did not need to give a year of immigration so "N/A" will appear there.
Accessing the census...
The database on-line is sorted by surname (from A to Z).
Click here for The Cobourg Census Project (surnames A to F)
Click here for The Cobourg Census Project (surnames G to M)
Click here for The Cobourg Census Project (surnames N to Z)
The Project is 100% complete. If you still can't find somebody that you feel should be there, e-mail me with all you know about them and I can search the database by Place of Birth, Ethnicity, Religion - just about everything.
TIP: For further digestion, copy individuals of interest and everything about them, then paste them into a Word document or Notepad file. This way its presented much easier and you can adjust the font and the format so its easy for you to understand.
This database will always be free. It is for personal use only. I have worked hard on it, so please do not copy and call it your own work. Of course I am not perfect so there may be errors. For this reason I encourage you to #1 check the original census and #2 verify information through other records.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about the project: Craig Kanalley [email protected]
