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From: "Pat Jeffs" <>
Subject: [UPP-CAN] York Twp 1851 Census Available for Lookups
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 10:44:44 -0000
References: <200306200103.h5K1374d012720@lists2.rootsweb.com>


Hi Everyone

For the past several months two of us have independently been transcribing the
1851 census for York Township. Once we have proofread each other's work it will
be joining the group of 19th century censuses already online at
OntGenWeb/census. Until then I am willing to do lookups for anyone interested in
the area in that timeframe.

My transcription was made in Access so it is easily indexed, though I have never
tested Access's "soundex" capabilities!

For those of you not familiar with York County's geography in the 19th century,
York Township covered the area north of the City of Toronto boundary up to
Steeles Avenue, between Etobicoke and Scarborough Townships. In 1851 the
northern boundary of Toronto was basically Bloor Street, but York Township went
down to the mouth of the Humber on the west and down to Ashbridge's Bay on the
east. Below Eglinton Ave the concessions were marked out, for the most part,
from the Bay(s) north. Above Eglinton they were counted east and west from Yonge
Street with the lot numbers going from south to north. (To the local experts:
please advise me if I am incorrect here. I am based a long way from Toronto.)

When I started the task I thought I knew the area and would be able to follow
the enumerators through their travels. However, I was often lost. Recently I
have been trying to match the agricultural holdings census to the map on
digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/default.htm
in order to attach some geographical landmarks to the database. As yet this is
not complete.

Transcribing the area was a very enlightening operation. It gave me an entirely
different insight into the area I used to call "Home".

/cheers

Pat Jeffs


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