A news release from FamilySearch confirms and adds a bit of detail.
On June 1, 2023, Canadians can expect to browse the digitized census images by geographic districts and sub-districts on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website. Following the initial release, LAC will work collaboratively with Ancestry® and FamilySearc
h International to create an advanced searchable database for Canadians, and those with Canadian heritage who wish to look for their ancestors. In this collaborative effort to increase access to the 1931 Census of Canada, LAC has digitized all 234,687 pages of the census and Ancestry will apply its state-of-the-art handwriting recognition technology to the digital images to create a full index of the entire census. FamilySearch will then review the computer-generated index to ensure a complete and accurate index of all fields at a level never achieved before. The images and indexes will be available and searchable online for free through Census Search, Library and Archives Canada’s new one-stop shop for national census records. The images and indexes will also be available on Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch.org.
Do you have a list of searches you’re itching to try? Where in Canada was that elusive relative? Who else was in the house? Who was living in your house in 1931?
A blog post “Historical thinking: using the census in primary teacher education” from Cheshire Archives and Local Studies has ideas on other activities the census can facilitate.
So exciting! And yes, I have some lookups I need to do for both my family and my husbands, plus I’ve been telling my genealogy patrons about it as well 🙂 For those whose parents were born within the privacy period who don’t want to pay to order certificates, this census will be a real boon. Three census releases within 18 months – a genealogist’s dream come true!!