Simple and Complex Searches
When we embarked on the CANIND71 project 25 years ago, our main purpose was to make the rich resources of the 1871 census manuscripts accessible to other interested users. We could not imagine the ways in individual researchers might use personal computers to reach and search the entire database. When the manuscript information was first digitized, in the first phase of the project to 1990, we made the large CANIND71 database available mainly to university-based researchers who used mainframe computers for data analysis.
Now it is possible, through the CANIND71 website and web retrieval strategies, for any interested person with a personal computer to make both simple and complex searches to learn more about the people, places and products involved in industrial activity in 1871.
More than 30 of the variables in the CANIND71 database have been made searchable in some way. Imagining the most likely interests of users, we have compiled lists of several single variables that may be searched. Live links are possible from two of these lists, for proprietors' names and census geographical units--directly to the details of relevant industrial establishment data. Datasets obtained in this way may be further searched according to other variables.
With the other variables, searching is possible in lookup tables; without live links; Standard Industrial Classification codes, industry types, raw materials, products, and central places (small unincorporated centres within Census Sub-Districts and Districts). Use of these lists can be facilitated by the Find features of personal computers' browsers, but we also provide live alphabetical keys. A user can look up these lists to understand the context of his or her interests. The information learned could prompt a complex search, in which two or more variables may be combined.
Guidance to more complex searches using the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System is given in the last section below.
Proprietors' Names
Please click on initial letter of the surname that interests you. You may have to wait a few seconds for a response, at all stages for searching, because of the large size of the database. Beside each surname is a count of the number of times it appears as a proprietor's name in the CANIND71 database. When you click on the name of a unique proprietor, you should be able to reach full data for that industrial establishment. You may reach several establishments, depending on how common the surname was in 1871; if so, summary data only will be displayed. When you find the proprietor you are seeking, you may click on the unique CANIND71 reference number to obtain the full data of the specific establishment.
Some surnames may look rather odd, as enumerators would record the names given by informants without necessarily checking spelling, and in 1871 spelling of even quite well-known families could be variable. In some regions and with larger enterprises, we have checked and sometimes corrected the spelling to make it consistent with contemporary sources. We also note that when several proprietors were named, the constraints of our original 80-column cards may have made it possible to spell out full names only in the COMMENTS field.
Please note the options at the foot of the spreadsheet to search further, download the dataset as a spreadsheet, or begin a new search.
Search table by proprietors' names.
A - J
K - T
U - Z
Census Geographical Areas
As with proprietors' names, our lists of census geographical units contain live links so that you can reach the data for industrial establishments in specific places that were defined as census units. When you click on the MAPID of a Census Sub-District or the CDID of a Census District, you should reach data for the industrial establishments located there. When you find an individual enterprise of interest, you may click on the unique CANIND71 reference number to obtain the full data of that specific establishment.
Please note the options at the foot of the spreadsheet to search further, download the dataset as a spreadsheet, or begin a new search.
List of all 1871 Census Districts and Sub-Districts in Geographical Order from Essex in southwestern Ontario to Richmond in eastern Nova Scotia.
numCDID is the numbered Census District
CDISTRIC the name of the Census District
MAPID the unique number-letter code of each Census Sub-District and a live link to search for industrial establishments located there.
CSD the name of the Census Sub-District
N of Establishments the number of industrial establishments recorded in the 1871 census and identified in the CANIND71 database within a Census-Sub-District
List of all 1871 Census Districts in Alphabetical Order
CDISTRIC the name of the Census District
CDID is the unique code for each Census District and a live link to search for industrial establishments located there.
N of Establishments the number of industrial establishments recorded in the 1871 census and identified in the CANIND71 database within a Census District
List of all 1871 Census Sub-Districts in Alphabetical Order
CSD is the name of the Census Sub-District
MAPID is the unique number-letter code of each Census Sub-District and a live link to search for industrial establishments located there.
N of Establishments the number of industrial establishments recorded in the 1871 census and identified in the CANIND71 database within a Census Sub-District
Standard Industrial Classification Codes
Each 1871 establishment was given a SIC code on the basis of the reported information about its products and raw materials. Standardized codes are useful in identifying similar kinds of industrial establishments which may not be found with just the natural language (English or French) of the manuscript census schedules. Industry types are also comparable with those of later periods. The SIC codes are also grouped into major industry classes and each establishment has an SEC code. For more explanation of SIC and SEC codes click here.
Links to the CANIND71 tables for industrial classification follow. You can look up types of industry that interest you to learn the relevant SIC or SEC codes. You might, for example, find that Gold Mining/Crushing (Extraction d'or) has the SIC code 052, while a Taxidermist is 899. You then follow the steps of our CANIND71 Web Retrieval System to find the establishments that contain the relevant codes
Click here for codes for the major industry groups (SECs) with the range of specific industry types (SICs) included in each.
We also present tables of the basic SIC codes that were assigned in making the 1871 industrial census data machine-readable (including suffixes but not compunds).
They are presented in three systems of order:
a) By logical order of the SIC itself. In this table, the terms that were also used in the published 1871 census reports are printed in italics.
b) By English names.
c) By French names.
Inudstury Types
Information recorded in natural langurage by the census enumerators for "type of estrablishment" has been organized into a lookup table. Terms used in 1871, but less familiar to us now, are explained further in the CANIND71 Glossary or the CANIND71 French-English Dictionary. How we recorded this information is discussed in CANIND71 project procedures.
CANIND71 users may browse the following lookup list, helped by live links to initial letters and by the Find features of your computer browser. The list includes distinctive occupational labels as well as the use of terms like mill/moulin, manufactory, factory and boutique. Some proprietors still used a label like blacksmith after they had expanded into a wider range of products.
Establishments that match terms of interest may then be found using our CANIND71 Web Retrieval System.
CANIND71 Database: Types of Establishment Recorded
Prouducts
Information recorded in natural language by the census enumerators for products has been organized into a lookup table. Terms used in 1871, but less familiar to us now, are explained further in the CANIND71 Glossary or the CANIND71 French-English Dictionary. How we recorded this information is discussed in CANIND71 project procedures.
CANIND71 users may browse the following lookup list, helped by our live links to initial letters and by the Find features of your computer browser. Thousands of items are included, from Acid, sulphuric to Zincware. Establishments that match terms of interest may then be found using our CANIND71 Web Retrieval System.
CANIND71 Database: Products
Raw Materials
Information recorded in natural language by the census enumerators for raw materials has been organized into a lookup table. Terms used in 1871, but less familiar to us now, are explained further in the CANIND71 Glossary or the CANIND71 French-English Dictionary. How we recorded this information is discussed in CANIND71 project procedures.
CANIND71 users may browse the following lookup list, helped by our live links to initial letters and by the Find features of your computer browser. Thousands of items are included, from Absinthe to Zinc, old. Establishments that match terms of interest may then be found using our CANIND71 Web Retrieval System.
CANIND71 Database: Raw Materials
Central Place Index
People interested in the past, and as long ago as the era of Canadian Confederation, may be more likely to know the hamlet or small cluster of settlement in which their ancestors or a specific enterprise were located, than the officially designated census unit. We tried to support such interests by making lists of central places that had some post office function, but were not municipally incorporated or defined as census units, and locating then in their Census Sub-districts (CSDs) and Census Districts (CDs).
CANIND71 users may browse the following lookup lists, helped by our live links to initial letters and by the Find features of your computer browser. Then you may search using the live links in one of the lists of census geographical areas for the relevant place. The results will include all establishments in that census unit, and the detailed record includes a note of all central places there. You may also use the name of the central place in the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System.
Use the variable Places associated with this CSD with similar results. In either case, it is possible to search within that dataset. So if you are interested in a water-powered grist mill located in a central place, you could search further on the dataset for the whole CSD (or CD) to find establishments for which the variable TYPEPOW included WATER and the SIC contained the code 105.
In the Central Place Index each line is a string, consisting of:
a) Name of central place with a post office in 1871
b) followed by the MAPID of the Census Sub-District or Census District in which it was located (depending on how precise we could get)
c) then a code for the type of post office:
B means a Savings Post Office, with the highest level of functions, usually in a larger central place
M means an Office authorized to grant and pay Money Orders, an intermediate-sized central place
P means a regular Post Office
W means a Way Office with simpler functions--these were found only mainly in the smaller localities of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia
Central Places, identified with post office functions by the date of the 1871 Census of Canada, are also listed in geographical order:
- by the Census Sub-District in which each was located, if this is known, or
- by the Census District in which each was located, if it is not possible to identify the Census Sub-District
1. Central Places with Post Offices identified in 1871 Census Sub-Districts, in geographical order (virtually all of Ontario, and parts of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia )
2. Central Places with Post Offices identified in 1871 Census Districts, in geographical order (northern fringes of Ontario in 1871, and parts of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia)
Complex Searches
The CANIND71 database--including records of more than 45,000 establishments, each with up to 100 variables--is a rich and complex source of historical information. Our website offers more complex access through the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System, a systematic and logical interface for search and retrieval of records with specific attributes. We introduce this here, with some worked examples, so you may feel more confident in making your own searches.
Thirty CANIND71 variables may be searched with this strategy. They are either character or numeric, which influences the way they can be searched and sorted.
Numeric variables
AVWAGES Average monthly wage per employee in dollars and cents -- a derived variable calculated only when data for TOTEMP, WAGES and MONTH were not missing.
EMPBOY Boys under 16 years (number employed).
EMPGIRL Girls under 16 years (number employed).
EMPMEN Men over 16 years (number employed).
EMPWOM Women over 16 years (number employed).
FIXCAP Fixed capital invested, in dollars.
FLOCAP Floating capital employed, in dollars.
FORCE Nominal force of moving power, stated in horse power units.
MONTH Number of working months in the year.
REFNUM Unique number of individual establishment in the database.
SUMPROC Total value of products, in dollars.
SUMRAWC Total value of raw materials, in dollars, a derived variable.
TOTEMP Sum of all employees, EMPMEN, EMPWOM, EMPBOY and EMPGIRL.
VADD Value added in manufacturing in dollars, a variable derived by subtracting SUMRAWC from SUMPROC when neither is missing.
WAGES Aggregate amount of yearly wages, in dollars.
Character Variables
CDID Census District code, comprising initial letter for province followed by sequential three-digit number, from 001 in southwestern Ontario to 206 in northeastern Nova Scotia.
CDISTRIC Census District name, with qualifiers such as North, South, East, and West placed after the main name.
COMMENTS Remarks added on the schedule, providing additional information about the establishment (up to 200 characters)
CSD Census Sub-District name, usually corresponding to basic municipal unit such as township, town or village in Ontario , and also to ward of major cities. Qualifiers such as North, etc are placed after the main name and abbreviated to N, etc. Urban municipal status is indicated by T for Town/Ville and V for Village.
MAPID Short code for Census Sub-District , used as label on CANIND71 maps.
Places associated with this CSD (from list of central places with post office functions in 1871)
POSTATUS Type of post office function at a central place.
PRODUCTS Composite list of all recorded products of industria1 activity in 1871 (derived from up to 12 distinct fields in the database.
PROP Has an "F" entered if the proprietor had a woman's name.
PROPRIOR Name of proprietor or company.
RAW MATERIALS Composite list of all recorded raw materials of industria1 activity in 1871 (derived from up to 12 distinct fields in the database.
SEC Major industry group or sector, in which basic SIC codes are grouped together.
SIC Standard Industrial Classification code, including variant suffixes and composites.
TYPEEST Type of industrial establishment, in the natural language of the manuscript schedules.
TYPEPOW Type of moving power other than manual, with a controlled vocabulary of types: Water, Steam, W/S (Water/Steam), Horse, Wind.
See List of Variables at http://www.canind71.uoguelph.ca/databaseVariables.shtml
and more explanation under side headings Project Procedures and CANIND71 Database Variables at http://www.canind71.uoguelph.ca/database.shtml#procedures
USING THE COMPLEX SEARCH STRATEGY
1. In the first section, select the kind(s) of variable criteria for which you wish to search whether character or numeric. You may choose up to four, in any combination of character or numeric variables or fields. Then press the button Rebuild Search Tool. If your search involves more than four, you may refine your first search in a second stage (see Section 4).
2. In the second stage:
i. First choose the region within which you wish to search: the Maritimes (provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ), province of Ontario , province of Quebec , or all of Canada (the four provinces of 1871). If your interest is localized, you save processing time by choosing only the relevant region.
ii. Then select the fields or variables on which you wish to search, using the dropdown options to select CANIND71 character or CANIND71 numeric fields.
iii. Use the dropdown comparison operators to specify whether the values you choose should be exact or approximate in some way. For character variables, you may choose from the following comparison operators:
is equal to
starts with
contains
contains any of
is not equal to
does not start with
(or) contains none of.
For numeric variables, you may choose from the following comparison operators:
is equal to
is greater than
is less than
is not equal to
is not greater than
(or) is not less than.
iv. The values you fill in should be based on some knowledge of the range of values in the database or in your field of interest in 1871. It could be useful to peruse the major section of this website headed USING THE DATA, or the CANIND71 Research Report 12: Patterns of Canadian Industry in 1871: An Overview Based on the First Census of Canada (1990).
3. In the third stage, choose from among sets of options for displaying the search results.
i. The report may be sorted by any numeric or character variable that makes sense. If you wish to rank in order by some numeric measure, click on the descending box.
ii. You may also request a frequency table on a significant character variable.
iii. If you expect a large number of records in your search result, you may wish to set a limit on the number displayed. The default is set at 100, and we suggest a maximum of 500 records.
4. In the fourth stage, either:
i. press the search button to begin finding the desired records that match your search criteria,
ii. or press Reset to begin a new search.
You may have to wait a while for the records to be retrieved, depending on the complexity of your search and the speed of your computer. Results of the search should be displayed in the order you have specified, preceded by a frequency table if you have requested one. Unless only a single record is retrieved, the display format includes only columns of summary variables or fields. The REFNUM or unique record number in the left column is a live link, which you may click to retrieve full details for that establishment.
At the end of the display, you may print the results. You may download results of your search as a spreadsheet. Or you may do a further search on the dataset. Or you may begin a completely new search.
SAMPLE SEARCH 1
Objective: To identify establishments in the Maritime region reporting any use of steam power, and to display these in geographical order with a frequency table of industry type.
Method: This calls for a very simple search on a single character variable.
Reach the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System
1. Choose character field. Rebuild to clear any previous search criteria
2. For region, Maritimes is set as the default option, so no need to change for this search.
For CANIND71 character field , choose TYPEPOW from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose contains from the dropdown list
For Value, type STEAM
3. Sort by CDID (so record will be displayed in geographical order from NB174 to NS206)
Include a frequency table on SEC (major industry groups)
Choose how many records you want displayed (you may wish to increase the default number of 100 if you think there may be more establishments found by your search).
4. Press Search key (when you are satisfied about your choices).
Results: 302 establishments in the Maritimes meet the search criteria, 74 of them in the Wood Products sector according to the frequency table. Note in the displayed table of search results, the second column from the left contains CANIND71 reference number, unique to each record and live links, when clicked, to the full data for that industrial establishment. The amount of detail varies, but some records include up to 12 products and raw materials each, with units of measurements, quantities and values, and well as additional comments.
SAMPLE SEARCH 1A
You may wish to search within the records found in the first search, say to identify more details for the most common type of establishment in the Wood Products sector, the saw mill with the SIC of 251. If you wish to search further within the dataset produced by Sample Search 1, choose
Option 2: Search further within these records.
You are returned to the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System
Your objective might be to retrieve establishments classified with the SIC code of 251 and reporting steam engines of at least 10 horsepower.
The Search screen refers to the number of records reached by the first search and saved for further searching.
1. Choose the fields for the second stage of searching. You will need one Character and one Numeric field. Then press the Rebuild Search Tool to the left.
2. In the Character and Numeric field spaces that open up in Section 2:
For the Character field, choose SIC and contains as the comparison operator, and type in 251 as the value
As you want both search criteria to be satisfied, choose and between the two criteria
For the Numeric field, choose FORCE , and is not less than as the comparison operator, and type in 10 as the value
3. You might choose to have the search results displayed in order of horsepower, starting from the highest, so choose FORCE and check the Descending box. You might choose to have a frequency table of geographical location by census districts, so choose CDID.
4. The results of your further Search show that there were, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1871, 55 sawmills reporting steam engines with not less than 10 horsepower. The frequency table shows all but twelve of these were in New Brunswick.
SAMPLE SEARCH 2
You may be interested in the history of foundries making agricultural implements by the time of Confederation, and have heard of the enterprise of John Watson in southern Ontario . You could search the Proprietors' list to find WATSON and then sort among many of that name. Or it might be more efficient to use the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System as follows:
1. Choose two Character fields. Rebuild to clear any previous search criteria
2. For region, choose Ontario
For first CANIND71 character field, choose PROPRIOR from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose is equal to from the dropdown list
For Value, type WATSON JOHN
Choose and..
For second CANIND71 character field , choose TYPEEST from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose contains from the dropdown list
For Value, type FOUNDRY
3. No need to choose among options for sorting, frequency table or how many records to display.
4. Press Search key.
Result: Just one record displayed for John Watson's Foundry and agricultural Implement Works in Ayr, Waterloo County , Ontario . Click on the CANIND71 reference number in the second column from the left to reach the full details recorded f0r this establishment in 1871.
These are remarkably interesting with full details for seven raw materials and twelve products (each with their quantities, units of measurement and values), making it possible to calculate unit costs of inputs and outputs. Watson's firm was among the top one per cent of Canadian industrial firms in 1871 and ranked 18th among all the establishments that reported making farm machinery.
SAMPLE SEARCH 3
Your objective may to identify the largest industrial enterprises in Canada in 1871. The CANIND71 database and web retrieval strategy make it possible to combine several measures of size, such as value of fixed capital, total number employed, value of production, and value added. We know that the top 450 or one per cent of all businesses in capital investment reported at least $28,500; the top one percent in numbers employed reported at least 51 workers; the top one per cent in value of production reported at least $7,000; and the top one per cent in added value reported at least $31,000.
We may combine these values in searches to find the enterprises that qualified in any one of these criteria or in all, as follows:
Reach the CANIND71 Web Retrieval System
1. Select four Numeric fields. Rebuild to clear any previous search criteria
2. For region, choose All of Canada
For first Numeric field, choose FIXCAP f rom the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose is not less than from the dropdown list
For Value, type 28500
Choose and..
For second Numeric field, choose TOTEMP from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose is not less than from the dropdown list
For Value, type 51
Choose and..
For third Numeric field, choose SUMPROC from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose is not less than from the dropdown list
For Value, type 76000
Choose and..
For fourth Numeric field, choose VADD from the dropdown list
For Comparison operator, choose is not less than from the dropdown list
For Value, type 31000
3. You might choose to have the results displayed geographically (by CDID) or perhaps ranked by some measure of size (such as SUMPROC Descending)
You might request a frequency table on SEC (major industry groups)
Perhaps increase the number of records to be displayed to at least 200
4. Press Search key.
Results: 150 establishments in all of Canada met all the search criteria, of which 38 were in Wood Industries, 21 in Leather, 20 in Machinery and 14 in Textiles, according to the SEC frequency table. Thirty-nine of these leading businesses were located in the city of Montreal . The top ten enterprises, by value of production, include names that are still recognizable: John Redpath and Molson sugar refineries in Montreal; the Gooderham & Worts distillery in Toronto; Hiram Walker's distillery in Sandwich Township, Essex County; the Allan Gilmour shipbuilding works in Levis; the Grand Trunk Railway in Montreal; G.B. Hall's saw mills in Quebec City; the Hamilton Rolling Mills; the Eddy saw mill and match factory in Hull; and William Hamilton's foundry and machine shop in Toronto. In the displayed table of search results, the second column from the left contains the CANIND71 reference number, unique to each record and with a live link to the full data for that industrial establishment.
Suggested Citation of CANIND71
The source of all data, documentation or programs derived from the CANIND71 database should be acknowledged as:
Canadian Industry in 1871 Project (CANIND71), University of Guelph, Ontario, 1982 - 2008 After the first reference to the full citation in each work by a user, the short form "CANIND71" may be used for subsequent references.