I found a Matthew also CRAWFORTH , MATHEW
Sex: Male
Age: 80
Birthplace: ENGLAND
Religion: Wesleyan Methodist
Occupation: FARMER
District: ONTARIO SOUTH ( 048 )
Sub-district: Whitby West ( B )
Division: 1
Note: Schedule Two: deaths in the preceding twelve months ending 2 April 1871
Microfilm reel: C-9974
Reference: RG31 — Statistics Canada
Not sure what the deaths part means but it is here, also, so must be a relative, too....
There were several 'sections' or 'schedules' to the 1871 census, one was a Death Registration of sorts. Anyone who died in the last 12 months before the census was taken, had to be listed. This means that Matthew and little William died sometime between April 1870 and April 1871. Now a search can be made in the Vital Registration indexes to Deaths, which are publicly available on microfilm. Once you find the death in the index, you convert the codes to get the microfilm with the full registration which includes details as to cause of death, where the person lived, etc.
The Ontario Vital Stats Project also has a lookup service for births/marriages/deaths. There's a fee, it's quite reasonable
http://www.rootsweb.com/~onvsr/http://allcensusrecords.com/canada/ has info on the parts of each Canadian census, and the list of questions asked - very helpful
Now that JJ has done this sleuthing and found what looks like your family in the 1871 index, you can order the full census page from NAC and see the details - spouse, children, occupations, religion, etc.
Then you should order the
Agricultural Portion of the 1871 census to find out exactly what land (lot and concession) they were on. This allows you to search other land records - such as the
Abstract Indexes to Deeds. I'm a BIG fan of those - they let you see who owned a certain parcel of land from the time it left Crown hands to the present day. Sometimes wills are filed with the AI to D. It also lets you see when your ancestor bought or was granted, the land and when they sold, or deeded it away -- and to whom!
Oh, and you can look for land petitions too - they might have applied for a grant of land under hardship rules or any number of other regulations.
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/can/ont/land.shtml has a good explanation, you will need to check the
CLRI and get the
Upper Canada Land Petitions Index on film. They have different information.
Both are indexes to land, one is an index to all petitions on land (UCLP indexes) which leads to the full petitions -- my ancestor coming from England to Canada (Ontario) via New York, filed a petition which gave his wife's maiden name - what a find!!
CRLI is an index of first time owners of Crown land, so if your ancestor was not a first time owner he/she will not appear. If they do appear on it, you will find valuable clues to aid you in investigating land records further - such as Canada Company Grants, Hardship/Gratuituous Grants, Military Grants, and so on.
