Index to the 1871 census of Ontario

The original nominal return of the various nineteenth-century censuses are among the most commonly used and most useful of genealogical sources, providing the name, age, birthplace, ethnic origin, and occupation of every resident at a point in time, in this instance 2 April 1871. It is the only source that comes close to being a comprehensive listing of the population. Why 1871? There are a number of reasons why we selected this year. A major consideration was the fact the 1871 census returns appear to be the most complete and probably the most legible of the Canadian censuses. The returns are generally easier to read than the earlier ones, and in many parts of the province the spelling and handwriting in 1881 were far worse than they had been ten years earlier. Indexing the 1871 returns presented less threat of duplication than would have been the case had another year been selected; most of the indexing that had already been done involved the 1852 and 1861 censuses. 1871 also nicely antedated the massive movement of Ontario population to the Canadian and American West which began in earnest in the late 1870's. Finally, at the time the project was begun the 1881 returns had only recently been opened, but were still subject to some restrictions and the microfilms were not widely available; the 1891 census had not yet been released for purposes of historical research -- from Intro.