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FAQ |
| Why use division, page and line to find people rather that division and family number? |
| Most enumerators made mistakes in numbering the families and then corrected the mistake
by writing over the first number. Sometimes this re-numbering was repeated several times
making the number unreadable. Several enumerators omitted numbers. Finally one enumerator,
division 10, numbered the families from 1 to 183 then numbered the next family 139 and continued
from there to number 226. This means that there are 2 unrelated families for each number from
139 to 183. Pages and lines work with no problems.
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| Are all residents of Victoria listed in the census? |
| No. Many would have been temporarily away from Victoria and possibly included in other
census districts. Some prominent names in the Victoria's past lived outside the city limits
such as the Rattenbury family who lived in Oak Bay or the Pooley's who lived in Esquimalt.
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| Are residents ever listed more than once in the census? |
| I have found many people who were listed twice and 1 person (Evan Baker) who is listed
3 times. Some people were listed at their businesses and at their homes (e.g. the Braverman's).
Others were adult children who were listed on their own and also by their parents. One
enumerator (div. 7) listed the crews of all the sealers that were at sea and would not return
until May. Many crew members were also listed with their families. One woman, Emma Offerman
married Otto Weiler on 2 Apr 1901 and is listed under both names in divisions 1 and 6. Several
children living in the St. Aloysius Boys' Prodestorate were also listed with their families.
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| Why not use a search engine? |
| Two types of search engines were considered. One searches for exact spellings. This becomes
an impossible task because some of the enumerators were poor spellers. The other type was a
soundex search. Again many mis-spelt names could be missed. A list that can be scrolled is
simple to use gives the searcher easy access to spelling variations.
Remember to use your imagination - how can names be mis-spelt? 'Mac' and 'Mc' are interchangeable
Also 'ie' and 'y' or 's' and 'ss' endings are both used. Letters get dropped such as 'Campbell'
spelt 'Cambell' and 'MacKintoch' as 'MacIntosh' (also 'Mc'). |
| Why so many small files rather than one huge file? |
| While you will be required to move back and forth between files, keeping the file size
small allows pages load much faster. |
| Why are the street numbers different from the modern numbering pattern? |
| Streets seem to have been numbered in any direction and odd and even numbers could have
been allocated to any street side. After the 1901 census and by 1908 a numbering system
had been adopted and was published in the 1908 city directory. |
| Have many streets been re-named since 1901? |
| Yes. A street name guide has been provided that includes descriptions of streets and notes name
changes. Also the street numbers at intersections along the route to help pin-point properties.
A number of streets have names that are in use today but these may not be the same street. |