• Name of each person in household 31 March 1901
• Sex
• Colour
• Relationship to head of household
• Single, married, widowed, or divorced
• Month and date of birth
• Year of birth
• Age at last birthday
• Country or place of birth (If Canada, include province and add "r" or "u" for rural or urban.)
• Year of immigration
• Year of naturalization
• Racial or tribal origin
• Racial or tribal origin
• Nationality
• Religion
• Profession, occupation, or trade
• Living on own means
• Employer, Employee, or Working on Own Account
• Working at a trade in factory or in home
• Months employed at trade in factory
• Months employed at trade in home
• Months employed in other occupation than trade in factory or home
• Earnings from occupation or trade
• Months at school in the year
• Can read
• Can write
• Can speak English
• Can speak French
• Mother tongue
• Infirmities

Look Closely at What Was Asked
We use census returns primarily for their relationship information and for details about age, place of residence, birthplace, and occupation. All these facts give each individual a unique identity and this helps in tracking the course of an ancestor's life. The 1901 census provides additional details that can be used to find other records or to look for unusual sources of background history or biography.

The extended information about occupation could lead you to resources about local economic history, to the agricultural returns of the 1901 census, to local directories and to newspapers looking for advertisements and articles. The question about religion had been asked in every census up to this point. This means you can check the information against past census returns and in relation to the churches in the vicinity of where your ancestor lived. Canada did not have an established church, and civil registration records start later than census returns, in some cases after 1900, so help with church records is valuable.

I was intrigued to read the point on the 1901 form about using "r" and "u" to indicate whether the Canadian birthplace was rural or urban. I have gone back to look at the forms of some of my ancestors to see what was entered. This fact can be another clue to family origins and background.

A Special Prairie Census, 1906
A large number of immigrants went to the Canadian West in the five years after the 1901 census. In addition, there were some boundary changes because Alberta and Saskatchewan became provinces. The Canadian government decided to take a mid-term census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in 1906.

Scan the pages of this census and you see a lot of people who were born in the United States. This was a period when tens of thousands came north every year to help in the Canadian harvest. Many of them stayed and many families had children born in Canada and in the United States.

Only five years separate this census from those of 1901 and 1911, and all three are online. The information is not as extensive as in 1901 census, but there are details about year of immigration to Canada and the precise location of the residence.

Conclusion
Taken together with the 1911 census, these two resources add a great deal to help with research in Canadian ancestors, especially those who lived between Ontario and the Rocky Mountains.

About the Author
Sherry Irvine, CG, FSA Scot, is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English, Scottish, and Irish family history. She is the author of Your English Ancestry (2d ed., 1998) and Researching Scottish Ancestry (2003), and she is a contributor to several publications. Since 1996, she has been a study-tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. Recently she served a two- year term as president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Online Classes
Sherry Irvine has teamed up with Helen Osborn for a new series of online courses. For more information, visit www.pharostutors.com.

by Juliana Smith

Last week I got an e-mail from a conservation group that regularly sends me alerts and newsletters. The headline, "CPR Can Save Wildlife," caught my attention, and when I looked at the photograph of grizzly bears next to it, I really did a double take. Were they suggesting that people should perform CPR on grizzly bears? Sounds kind of risky to me! As I read on, I realized that by CPR they meant the Canadian Pacific Railway and that made a bit more sense.

How often in our genealogy research do we run into similar problems? Maybe more often than we realize.

Regional Misinterpretation
It's important to remember that geographic abbreviations haven't remained static over the years. Ia., commonly thought of as the abbreviation of Iowa, was at one time commonly used as the abbreviation for Indiana. NB may have meant New Brunswick or Nebraska.

When we think of the Northwest, we might think of the Pacific Northwest (such as is represented in the map of The Northwest, 1865-90, but a couple hundred years ago, the Northwest Territory was actually the area which now comprises Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. (As shown in this map of The United States, 1783-1802.)

Last week, George gave us a great reminder in the Tips from the Pros regarding how we record locations. Not only should we take care in how we interpret the way a geographic location is listed in a record, we also need to take care in how we cite it in our family history, both for ourselves and for those we intend to share our family history with.

Mass Confusion
Sometimes in our joy at finding a new record, we may misinterpret a date as well, or perhaps jump to an incorrect conclusion. Those of you who have read some of my previous columns have probably heard me mention Bishop Loughlin's Dispensations, Diocese of Brooklyn, 1859- 66, Volume I, by Joseph Silinonte. The book covers dispensations to marry that were granted by Bishop Loughlin of Brooklyn, New York, for couples who had some type of impediment to being married in the church. The book lists the bride's name, groom's name, place of nativity, residence, names of parents, a date and church code, and for some, a number representing comments listed in another part of the book that list other important information, mostly the names of deceased husbands of widowed prospective brides. Since these are marriage banns, one might jump to the conclusion that the date provided is the marriage date, but in fact the introduction tells us that, "From reading over 5200 marriage Dispensations it does not appear to be the date of the marriage, though it could be. It most likely is the date Bishop Loughlin entered the information or request into his records." Without reading the foreword it would be easy for a researcher to jump to the conclusion that the date was a marriage date, while the actual date might be months off.

Other more common cases where we may find dates being confused include births and baptisms, and deaths and burials. Once I caught myself grabbing the date a doctor began treating the deceased on a death certificate, rather than the date of death. If we're not careful, these are easy mistakes to make, and that is why it is so important to see documentation for data obtained from other people, whether through them sharing it or by obtaining it yourself. Even if the date is off only by a small amount of time, it can make a huge difference if we are using that date to request other records.

Avoiding Problems
To be clear on what is meant in records, databases, print publications, or any other genealogical source, we often need to look beyond the actual record itself. Look at the purpose of the record. Might an ancestor have lied about his age on a military record to get into (or out of) the service? Look at who created the record or provided the information. Did a nephew, cousin, friend, or neighbor provide information for a death certificate or obituary--someone who really might not have the correct date or place of birth? Or perhaps the funeral home got it wrong. The funeral card for my great- grandfather lists 1879 as his date of birth. Fortunately for us, one of the surviving cards has, in my grandmother's handwriting, "Date is wrong. Dad was born in 1869."

If you're using a publication, database, index, or some other compilation, read introductory materials. For census records, check out the instructions given the enumerators. This information is critical to your analysis of your findings and can make the difference between taking the right path or the wrong path.

Look at your interpretations--do an audit of your records and see if perhaps in the midst of a little happy dance, maybe you grabbed the wrong date, or even mistyped it. And when you're looking to incorporate someone else's family history into yours, use the same standards you use in your own research. Make sure you're clear on the facts, sources, abbreviations, and anything else that could be confused. The consequences won't be as dire as giving CPR to a grizzly, but doing so will help you keep your family history on the right path.

About the Author
Juliana Smith has been the editor of Ancestry.com newsletters for more than eight years and is author of The Ancestry Family Historian's Address Book. She has written for Ancestry Magazine and wrote the "Computers and Technology" chapter in The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, rev. 3rd edition. Juliana can be reached by e-mail at Juliana@Ancestry.com, but she regrets that her schedule does not allow her to assist with personal research.

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The following items were posted to the 24/7 Family History Circle blog over the past week:

• Twenty Questions
• Ancestry.com Site Update
• Paul Milner Named Co-Leader of NGS Britain and Ireland Forum
• Family History Beginner's Workshop in Boston!
• Member Trees Clarification

from Michael John Neill

The picture said only John Ufkes 4H Steer 1933, and it got me to thinking. Have we really identified our photographs? The 1933 photograph only included my grandfather's steer. The only human part of the picture was part of a leg and a shoe. The photograph was included in a collection of other photographs of my grandfather and was taken in front of their home. I knew the house was the one in which my grandfather grew up and never really doubted whose steer was in the picture. But what about in fifty years?

My grandfather had two first cousins with the same first and last name. If the photograph had been separate from other pictures I would not have had any context in which to place it. The home that was standing in 1933 is in disrepair and it is only a matter of time before firsthand knowledge of its appearance fades from human memory. It could very well be that in fifty years the "identity" of the picture will not be as certain as it is today.

What can be done? Identify in full the name of the individual in the picture. Consider including a year of birth and death or the name of the parents to distinguish from other individuals with the same name. If the location in the photograph is known, include that information as well.

I'm now going back and considering how "identified" my pictures are. I have long known to avoid identifications like "Grandpa's steer 1933" (recognizing that names are better than relationships), but now realize that complete identification may require a few more details than I originally thought.

A better identifier might be:
John H. Ufkes steer 1933, at Fred J. Ufkes farm, Basco, Illinois

The picture is not big enough for me to write a complete biography, so brevity while still being descriptive is necessary. Are there pictures in your collection with identifications that are not as clear as you think?

Note: I don't know the name of the steer. If the picture had been from my paternal side of the family and the name of the animal was known, I might have been able to trace the animal's pedigree at www.angus.org. (I saw pedigrees on livestock before I even knew they existed for humans.)

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Keeping the Letterhead in the Family
I have been enjoying the weekly and monthly updates from Ancestry and have a tip of my own. While visiting a cousin recently, she produced an old pad of 'steno' paper with an elaborate letterhead across the top of the page that belonged to our great-grandfather. I took one sheet and had it scanned to a disc and now whenever I correspond with that side of my family I pull up the letterhead and use it as stationary. It is a lot of fun to have and I have gotten much positive feedback from family members.

Peg Sullivan
North Carolina

Record Contemporary Addresses for Posterity
After an especially grueling search for an ancestor's census record, I decided to take a look at my own family and record the exact location including street address where my husband and I, our parents, our grandparents, and our children have lived for all census records yet to be released. It certainly will make it easier for future generations to find us, especially in our more mobile society.

Diane Murach

A Word to the Wise
I have been researching my family ancestors since 1981, when I was doing all my research by snail mail. I didn't realize how large my files would get and how important the source of the information I collected was. Well folks, let me tell a little bit of what has happened to me, in not documenting my sources. Someone contacted me with information to share and wanting more on some of our ancestors. Would you believe I had people in the wrong places and dates out of place? What a mess I had. I am now cleaning it up, but had already donated to Ancestry with all the mistakes. Not realizing my mistake of not documenting or asking for the source. Is my face red! I took the word of another researcher that the information was genuine.

Whatever you do, now or in the future, get the source. I have had to delete so many ancestors because of this mistake and no sources. I am now going over all 6,250 entries to make sure there are sources to back up my findings.

A Fellow Researcher

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: Juliana@Ancestry.com. Thanks to all of this week's contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Weekly Journal please state so clearly in your message.

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The year was 1829, and in Scotland, there was a catastrophic flood. According to a paper online at the website of Fettes College, Edinburgh, Scotland, the Muckle Spate (large flood) of 1829, began on August 3, 1829 in northeast Scotland and was "the most severe catastrophic flood in modern UK history." It extended across a large area of Scotland, from Inverness to Montrose, and devastated homes and agriculture in the affected areas. The Edinburgh Advertiser from August 11, 1829 provides detailed coverage of some of the affected areas, including the excerpt below:

The Dee was first observed to increase about four o'clock on Monday afternoon, and it continued to rise until about eleven o'clock on Tuesday forenoon, when it remained stationary for a few hours; after which, it began to recede with considerable rapidity. In some places, it attained an elevation of eleven feet above its ordinary level. . . The low grounds in the vicinity of the river were completely inundated, and so great, in some parts of its course, was the space over which it extended, that it presented the appearance rather of a lake than a river. . . Vast quantities of hay, straw, timber, &c. have been swept away; and so great was the force of the torrent, that many fields were stript of their soil, and covered with sand and stones. A good many cattle and sheep may have been drowned; but as it is customary, in the upper parts of the country to leave numerous flocks scattered over the hills, it will be impossible, for some time to ascertain with accuracy the numbers that have perished. Fortunately, notwithstanding the imminent to which many people were exposed from the suddenness of the inundation, no loss of human life has arisen from the overflowing of the Dee. Several cottages have, at Ballaster and other places, been carried away; and so completely were others surrounded with water, that a stranger could scarce have told on which side of the river they stood. A good many people were rescued, by means of boats, from being drowned in their own houses, and were obliged to resign their furniture, &c. to destruction. With the exception of the bridge near Aberdeen, and that at Potarch, all the bridges over the Dee have either been swept away, or sustained more or less injury. . . .

(Click on the newspaper images in the blog version of this article to read more from page 5 of the newspaper. Further details are on pages 4-6 of that issue.)

In the U.S., Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States. A hero of the War of 1812, he had also been a senator and representative for Tennessee, and Justice of the Tennessee Superior Court. Nicknamed "Old Hickory", he appealed to the common man and held a public reception at his inauguration at the White House.

The U.S. had banned the importation of slaves in 1808, but unfortunately, it didn't stop the trade. In 1829, a boat assigned to patrol the African Coast looking for slavers, intercepted the "Feloz" and a group from the interceptor boarded the ship. A first-hand account of the horrific conditions from one of the group, Rev. Robert Walsh, can be found online at EyeWitness to History.com.

That year, Eng and Chang Bunker, the original Siamese twins arrived in America where they traveled around in exhibitions. They went on to tour through England and other countries in Europe for the next ten years and later settled in a small town in North Carolina, where they married two sisters.

In the world of technology, William Austin Burt invented and received the first American patent for the "typographer"--an early version of the typewriter. Burt also held patents for a number of other inventions and did extensive surveying in the areas that are now Michigan and Wisconsin.

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If you'd like to see your ancestor's photograph in the Ancestry Weekly Journal, send it to juliana@ancestry.com.

Contributed by Sherry Wagner, Eastlake, Ohio Sherry's grandmother, Electa Johnson Nichols, taken when she was fourteen years old and just before it became socially acceptable for a girl to "bob" her hair like the 1920 flappers did. Electa was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1907 and taught first grade in the Cleveland School for thirty-five years. In 1930, she and a girlfriend drove her Ford from Cleveland to the Grand Canyon, up Pike's Peak, and back. Their trip is recorded in Grandma's journal which is a fascinating read. Photos of her mother's hair show that she never cut it until the 1940s as it was to the ground.

Contributed by Christina Christina found this photograph at a yard sale and would like to see it returned to the rightful family. The photograph has the name Frank Hadley Snell, Jr., born 12-09-1893, taken 5-16-1894 in Orange County, New Jersey. If you have any questions, please contact Christina at ckurimski@charter.net

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Abbreviations & Acronyms: Rev. 2d Ed., by Kip Sperry

Do you know what ARC, BIRDIE, DAMRUS, FOIA, GEDCOM, OVI, or Xpofer mean? These and many other abbreviations, acronyms, and initials are defined in this essential reference guide. All genealogists and historians encounter abbreviations and acronyms in the course of their work. But even the most experienced researcher would be hard-pressed to know the meaning of all of them. In "Abbreviations & Acronyms," the compiler presents an exceptionally detailed list of meanings for abbreviations, alphabetic symbols, initials, contractions, and shortenings of words--those that are found in original records and in printed sources.

Normally this book retails for $16.95, but today you can buy it in the Shops @ Ancestry.com for $14.95.