The Canadian Library & Archives

Tuesday Tips

I had the opportunity to do some genealogical research for a friend who knew virtually nothing about her grandfather, Andrew Halcro.  He died in 1925 at the age of 48 and was not talked about much by the family.  What made him of interest to me is that he was born, lived his entire life, and died in Quebec, Canada. I have very little experience with Canadian ancestors and thought researching him would be a great exercise for me to learn more about Canadian research.

First – Family Search

My first step in learning about an ancestor is to try to find the individual in Family Search. I quickly found my subject as ID: LYBX-5WS. Next, I go to Sources for the individual. In this case, I learned that someone had associated three sources with events in my subject’s life.

1. 1. 1881 Canada Census showing Andrew in the household of his father, Frank.
   2. 1891 Canada Census showing Andrew in 1891 Census but no image of the record.
   3. A 1998 obituary of one of Andrew’s sons indicating that Andrew was the son’s father.

Going from the most recent record back, I reviewed the 1998 obituary and then incorporated it into my research. The 1891 Canada Census was something of a conundrum. Why was there no image at FamilySearch?

Library & Archives of Canada

I was pretty sure I’d find it at Ancestry.Com, but that requires a World Explorer License. So, I did a Google search for: 1891 Canada Census.  I immediately saw an entry for the Library and Archives of Canada. I did a search for Andrew there and immediately found him. His entry was the only result.  There were links to download an image for the entry in either JPG or PDF format; I like that.

I then began to look at what else they have at the Library and Archives of Canada. All kinds of Census records from 1825 “Lower Canada” to a “1926 Prairie Provinces” Census.

As I wandered around the site a little bit, I learned they have Military Records, Passenger and Border Entry Lists (Immigration records), Birth, Marriage, & Death Records, Divorce records, and even some city directories online. What a great resource; not only does it have wonderful records, it is free. Anyway, it is a “Bright, Shiny Object” in my current project, so I took some notes to come back and data-mine the resource soon.

I searched the Family Search Records and was not successful in finding any new records relating to my Andrew. However, I noted there was another person with the same name living in the same town at the same time. I would need to be careful to differentiate between my Andrew (1876-1925) and this other Andrew (1811-1878) in any records I find.

Future Actions:

Datamine for the Halcro family in the Library & Archive of Canada.