When there are no census indexes, look for your ancestor’s location in other kinds of indexes. See “Church Records,” “Directories,” “Emigration and Immigration,” “Genealogy,” and “Land and Property” in this research outline and in outlines of the provinces.

Boundaries of National Census Districts

National census records are arranged by province and within provinces by census districts and subdistricts. Census districts are voting districts, not counties. Although a voting district may have the same name as a county, it may not include the same townships. In some provinces, townships are equivalent to census subdistricts. To determine which townships and counties eastern Canadian cities and villages were located in, look in:

Lovell, John, ed. Canadian Dominion Directory for 1871. 8 vols. Montreal: John Lovell, 1871. (FHL book 971.3 E4L; films 856124 and 856125; fiche 6046766; computer number 99251.) This gives the township and county of each community, which is important when searching census, land and property, local histories, and other records.

Since the boundaries varied from census to census, it is not easy to tell which census district an eastern Canadian township or western Canadian village was in. Contemporary maps of the census districts have been lost or destroyed. Provincial maps showing county, township, and election/census precinct boundaries as of about 1880 for the Maritimes, Quebec, and Ontario are in:

Illustrated Atlas of the Dominion of Canada. Toronto: H. Belden, 1880. (FHL film 982194 item 5; computer number 212839.)

For 1871 only, useful district descriptions are in:

Censuses of Canada, 1608–1876. Statistics of Canada. Ottawa: Maclean and Roger, 1878, 5: 388–435. (FHL book 971 X2pc, v. 5; film 844891; computer number 161268.)

Gazetteers published in the 1880s sometimes list the “electoral county” or census/voting district rather than the county where a city or village was located. If you still cannot determine the census district, you may need to search several neighboring census districts to find your ancestor.

Colonial, Provincial, and Local Censuses

Colonial, provincial, and local governments also took censuses. Content varied by time period and by locality. Censuses taken in the 1600s under the French regime sometimes included much more family information than those taken in British North America in the early 1800s. (See research outlines of the provinces.)

Fifteen partial censuses of New France and nine of Acadia were taken between 1666 and 1754. Find microfilm numbers of Acadian censuses and book call numbers of published transcriptions in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

NOVA SCOTIA - CENSUS