Access Canada's Censuses for Free

When someone on Twitter mentions free and genealogy in the same 140 characters, I have to take a look. Thanks to @BBPetura for alerting me to today's resource, the Library and Archives of Canada. The library offers free access to Canada's censuses from 1851 to 1916.

Some censuses are for the entire country, while others are for only specific areas. What they have:

• Census of 1851 (Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia)
• Federal Census of 1871 (Ontario Index)
• Census of Canada, 1871
• Census of Canada, 1881
• Census of Canada, 1891
• Census of Canada, 1901
• Census of Canada, 1911
• Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906
• Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1916

Most of the censuses are searchable by name, age, province and district. The fact that they have an 1891 census while us American researchers are stuck trying to reconstruct where our ancestors were in 1890 is a major source of envy for me. Happy hunting.