More on the 1916 census of the Prairie Provinces

Here's more news about the newly released 1916 census now that I've had a chance to look at a sample.

First the really good news. The census includes lots more information than in the 1906 census: family and first name, military service, domicile (township, range, meridian, municipality), relation to head of household, sex, marital status, age, place of birth (province or country), religion, year of immigration, year of naturalization, nationality, race or national origin, whether can speak English, whether can speak French, mother tongue, whether can read, whether can write, occupation, employer/employee/self employed.

The question on military service is especially interesting as the possible answers are overseas, in Canada or none. It looks as if people who would normally be in the household, but were away on service during WW1, are also being enumerated.

Second, the good news. There's a finding aid at the LAC Genealogy Desk which details the communities. As with the 1906 census finding aid, locations are often only identified by township and range and meridian, and sometimes by community name. It's helpful to know the geography of the area you're searching.

Third, not so good news but easy to fix. The drawers containing the LAC microfilms aren't identified. I had to look two drawers down from the last labelled drawer to find the microfilm I wanted.

Fourth, the bad news. The quality of the microfilm copy was mixed on the film I examined. The image at the top of the page was usually quite legible but darkened considerably toward the bottom, particularly at the sides, so that in some cases it was impossible to read the names in the lower third of the page.