The Canadian 1911 census was released recently, but the lack of an index by name or even maps showing the outline of census districts has made searching the census both time-consuming and error prone.

An organization called Automated Genealogy is indexing the census with volunteers. At the time this document was written (February 2006), the index was 45% complete (although few Montreal Jewish records seem to have been indexed so far). The 1911 index (as well as the 1901 index) can be searched for free at http://www.automatedgenealogy.com/index.html.

More recently, Ancestry.com, a commercial organizition, has indexed the complete census and made it available on their web site. Ancestry is a pay site, but they are offering a number of attractively priced options (including one FREE option at the moment). The options are:

• Access to all Canadian records for C$99.95 per year
  
• Access to all Canadian records for C$14.95 per month
• Access to 10 record views over a 14 day period for C$5.95
• Free access to all Canadian records for 14 days (it is unclear how long this offer may be made)

Note that all Ancestry plans except the "10 record view" will automatically be renewed at the end of the period unless you explicitly cancel (requires a telephone call - cannot be done online). The 14-day free access will become a paid annual subscription at the end of the period of you do not cancel (you may be able to talk them into converting it to a monthly plan instead).

If you have can do all of your searching in 14 days, and you are disciplined enough to remember to cancel, clearly the free offer is great. Otherwise, there should be one of the for-pay options that meet all researchers needs (remember that if you opt for the monthly plan, you need to cancel after a few months, or you will have paid the equivalent of a yearly subscription in just 7 months. Ancestry is a US organization, so I do not think that GST or QST are charged. Ancestry also offers "world" packages which include access to US and other records as well.

To sign up for any of the Canadian record plans, you need to use the http://www.ancestry.ca web site instead of the normal http://www.ancestry.com site (if you go to the .com site and they think that you are coming from Canada, they will ask you which site you want). The home page (currently) points to the free subscription offer. The subscription page is http://www.ancestry.ca/subscribe/signup.aspx?SourceId=&TargetId=.

Note that the census was hand-written, and the quality of the handwriting varied widely. There are many errors in the both the Automated Genealogy index and the Ancestry index, so you may need to be innovative in your searching. Remembering that related families often lived in the same street or neighbourhood can sometimes lead you from a correctly indexed entry to one that would otherwise be unlocatable.

Steve Morse has created web pages to facilitate the searching of both the 1911 and 1901 censuses - see http://www.stevemorse.org.

For those unfamiliar the 1911 census, the list of column headings may catch your interest. Full details of the contents can be found at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/1911/006003-100.04-e.html#c.

Column(s)	Contents
1	Dwelling House
2	Family, Household, or Institution
3	Name of Each Person in Family, Household, or Institution
4	Place of Habitation
5	Sex
6	Relationship to Head of Family or Household
7	Single, Married, Widowed, Divorced or Legally Separated
8	Month of Birth
9	Year of Birth
10	Age at Last Birthday
11	Country or Place of Birth (if Canada specify province or territory)
12	Year of Immigration to Canada, if an Immigrant
13	Year of Naturalization, if Formerly an Alien
14	Racial or Tribal Origin
15	Nationality
16	Religion
17	Chief Occupation or Trade
18	Employment Other Than at Chief Occupation or Trade, if any
19	Employer
20	Employee
21	Working on Own Account
22	State Where Person Is Employed, as "on Farm," "in Woolen Mill...
23	Weeks Employed in 1910 at Chief Occupation or Trade
24	Weeks Employed in 1910 at Other Than Chief Occupation or Trade, if Any
25, 26	Hours of Working Time per Week at Chief Occupation and Hours of Working Time per Week at Other Occupation, if Any
27	Total Earnings in 1910 From Chief Occupation or Trade
28	Total Earnings in 1910 From Other Than Chief Occupation or Trade, if Any
29	Rate of Earnings per Hour When Employed by the Hour (Cents)
30, 31	Upon Life $ and Against Accident or Sickness $
32	Cost of Insurance in Census Year $
33	Months at School in 1910
34, 35	Can Read and Can Write
36	Language Commonly Spoken
37	Cost of Education in 1910 for Persons Over 16 Years of Age at College, Convent or University
38	Blind
39	Deaf and Dumb
40	Crazy or Lunatic
41	Idiotic or Silly