1891 Canadian Census?

[AnnieMack]

My ancestor Christina Innes travelled from Scotland to Canada on the Buenos Ayrean in 1886 aged 9 with her sister Jane aged 12. She was with a party from Quarriers Homes in Scotland. Some time ago I was lucky enough to see a list from a township (possibly the 1891 census) showing her placed with a family however she was later placed with a Dr Albert Freeman. I have lost all my data due to a hard disk corruption problem and now that I have begun the task of trying to recreate it cannot find a searchable 1891 census. I know she ended up in the Frontenac area - can anyone help me find where she was between arriving and going to the household of Dr Freeman.

She married George W Chrissley in 1898. I have extensive info to the point of arriving and similar after she marries, it is just really the 12 years in between that are sketchy. Any help would be gratefully appreciated as Christina or Tena as she became was a very special lady who deserves to be remembered as she had no children and did great works in her township being known as 'Auntie' to many but she is my actual great great aunt.

Hope someone reading this can help, especially in this, the Year of Homecoming in Scotland.

Annie

[SarahND]

Hi Annie,
Ancestry has the 1891 census of Canada, but... although Jane is easy to find, I must admit I don't see Christina under any sort of name. But maybe I'm too tired!

Regards,
Sarah

[Currie]

Hello Annie,

There’s a limited preview of “The Golden Bridge – Young Immigrants to Canada 1833 – 1939” available on Google Books. I don’t know how many pages can be previewed but sometimes there can be substantial portions of the book. Maybe there are some clues there as to where the children were kept until they were old enough to be farmed out as domestics or whatever the usual procedure was.
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Qs3 ... 2&as_brr=3

Hope you find them in 1891 and don’t forget to backup your stuff.

All the best,
Alan

[AnnieMack]

Thanks Alan! I did back up my stuff on a very expensive (at the time) 80GB external hard drive which seems to want to be formatted now

Annie

[emanday]

Hi Annie,

I know this is likely to be a costly thing to suggest, but have you considered taking your external HD to a PC dealer/repairer to see if they might be able to "recapture" the data on it?

It's one of those jobs that you have to weigh up the difference in cost between having it tried (success is never guaranteed ), and the cost of paying again to re-research and re-obtain the data.

[Currie]

Hello Annie,

I’m not sure why an external hard drive would be asking for a format unless maybe it’s full to the brim or something. External drives are usually not as durable as internal drives probably because they can suffer more from overheating if used for extended periods and the fact that they can be more subjected to knocks and drops and bumps and that sort of thing. You should treat them as you would a basket of eggs.

But if the data on your main computer drive is okay it might be a good idea to copy the important bits of that onto DVDs so that you have more than one copy that you’re sure about. Even put the really important stuff, like in particular your family History program data file, onto a USB thumb drive as well as an extra backup, although I wouldn’t trust one of those as a main backup. Just cover yourself in case something goes wrong.

You could try plugging your external hard drive into another computer and see if everything works normally just in case there’s some slight problem with your computer rather than the external drive. Try even plugging it into another USB port on yours or at the back if you have a desktop although that’s unlikely to be the problem. External drives contain components and electronics quite apart from the actual hard drive and I suppose it may be possible for something to go wrong with those. If that was the case the drive inside the external case may be just a normal hard drive that may fit inside a normal computer case if provided with appropriate cabling.

If your main computer drive is okay then you wouldn’t be at the data recovery point yet. If you ever got to that point there are do-it-yourself programs available which may or may not recover information, even from drives that have been wiped clean, and that’s why it can be a security risk to sell an old computer with its drive in place. I read somewhere that the CIA shoots holes in theirs but they probably remove them as well. If the data is too important to risk playing around with yourself or if it’s a mechanical problem with the drive the data recovery people may be the only option. I’ve heard many times that it’s very expensive but don’t remember anyone mentioning the actual amount.

Just some thoughts,
Alan

[AnnieMack]

Ok, I bit the bullet and signed up for Ancestry and am in the throws of trying to find Christina.

I have now seen her on the passenger list as one of Mr Q's children in 1886, arriving in Quebec on the Buenos Ayrean on June 3rd. She marries on 1898 and I know from a cousin that she takes up a post as a domestic prior to her sister Jane marrying in 1893. I can find Jane on the 1891 census. I should say that apart from arriving in Quebec, all other records have them in the Frontenac region of Ontario for the rest of their lives.

Jane is registered as Innis in 1891 census and noted as a servant aged 17, Christina would have been 14. Christina's name was abbreviated to Tena. I have tried EVERYTHING to find her on a Canadian census and am totally at a loss now.

Has anyone got any further suggestions as I am driven to distraction!!! I want to write a full history of her as I feel she deserves it, being a Home Child and this being Homecoming Year. I have some fantastic information on her adult years but a gap between 1886 and 1898 that is like an itch I can't quite scratch!.

Annie

[Currie]

Hello Annie,

The lengthy biography on pages 284-286 (see also photo etc elsewhere) in this document indicates that the two sisters were together at the William Johnson farm until sister Jennie’s marriage in 1893 and Tena had only a short stay nearby before the move to Freeman’s.
http://zert.info/Documents/Tweedsmuir.pdf

Tena came to Canada from Glasgow, Scotland at age nine with her sister, Jennie Innes, aged twelve. Jennie later became Mrs. Miles Lake. The two girls first came to the farm of William Johnston on Cone. 4 Lot 22, where Jennie lived till she married at the age of 19. She carefully supervised her younger sister's placement and after a short stay at a neighbour's near the Johnston's Tena joined the Dr. Albert Freeman household in Inverary, where she was to spend her girlhood and the members of which she came to regard as "her family".

Is this the missing document?

Hope that helps,
Alan

[SarahND]

Great find, Alan! =D>
As I said above, I couldn't find her at all in 1891... I think she must have slipped between the cracks in moving from one family to another. Maybe they each assumed the other had put her down in their household. But the document you found gives the crucial bit of information. I think you have saved Annie from losing her mind

Cheers,
Sarah

[Currie]

Hello Sarah,

I was a bit surprised that I latched onto it so quickly. I couldn’t find anything the previous time I checked. It may have been just a matter of trying the right combination of search terms this time or perhaps previously the document was “off the air”.

These sorts of community & church histories are always great to find. I’ve come across similar material in the U.S. for a Welsh settlement my family are connected with.

All the best,
Alan