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May 22, 2015

More Ways to Find an Ancestor in the 1851 Agricultural Census

Previously I talked about the 1851 Agricultural Census and using the online Library and Archives Canada Search Engine to find an ancestor.

You can also search on Ancestry.com in their online Canadian Census records. Unfortunately you cannot narrow your search to just bring up results for the Agricultural Census. However when you enter an ancestor's name, IF that person is found in the existing Agricultural portion of the 1851 census, and IF they are found in a surviving 1851 Personal Census, you will see two results. One will be the personal census, the other the Agricultural.

Search Results 1851 Census for Charles Black - 2 entries, Agricultural & Personal

If the person is found in one census and not the other, how do you tell which you have? It's simple. The result for the Agricultural census will not display an age. 

Search Result for Agricultural Census - no age is shown

The database you want to search is called 1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Don't enter the individual's age or year of birth. Just search by first and last name, and location.

It would make life easier if Ancestry had entered the word "Agricultural" into their database fields so we could narrow the search but they have not done so. However with a little patience you can find your ancestor providing that census has survived for the area the ancestor lived in.

Don't overlook this resource as it has great genealogical value to researchers. 


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