The people of 1921 Toronto — the Mildreds, Kathleens and Alfreds — have never been exposed like this. The details of their lives, from how much they earned to whether they could read and write, have been closely guarded by StatsCan for 92 years. Now, the handwritten secrets are ours for the taking.

The 1921 census was released by Library and Archives Canada on the Ancestry.ca genealogy site Thursday. Genealogists had been anticipating the release of the post-First World War data like the resolution to a cliffhanger television show.

“It’s been quite a long haul for some people, and for some of them it will certainly answer some mysteries,” said Shirley Sturdevant, president of the Ontario Genealogical Society, from her home in Chatham.

A 92-year waiting period before census information is released is enshrined in the Statistics Act. (For censuses since 2006, people must give consent to that release 92 years later.)

Back in 1921, national censuses were being done every 10 years. Between 1911 and 1921, Canada added 1.5 million people, with the prairie provinces seeing the biggest gains. Toronto was then Canada’s second biggest city, after Montreal. More than 11,000 people worked to record the census data.

“I think, typically, what we’re going to see is the change of occupations. We have moved now from the agricultural turn of the century — now they’ve been to war, you’re going to see a lot of variants in the kinds of jobs they have,” said Lesley Anderson, a family history expert at Ancestry.ca.

Anderson said a fuller picture of Canadians in 1921 will be available once the records are fully indexed later this year. The census asked 8.7 million Canadians 35 basic questions about occupation, literacy, language, religion and ethnicity.

People keen to search the raw data before it is indexed can search by towns and census wards, which is how it was organized back in 1921. It’s easier if your relatives lived in small towns, but a bit difficult in a city like Toronto. Sturdevant was able to find her great-grandfather Elijah Kendall where she left him back in the 1911 census, at the same house in Woodstock, Ont. By 1921, he is 58 and working as a general labourer, with three children at home.

He came to Canada from England in 1910, where he was a police officer. In 1921, Kendall’s daughter Christina — Sturdevant’s grandmother — was still living with her family, 23, and working at a knitting factory. The census was taken before she was married.

“You almost can’t describe it to somebody who has never done it; it’s like one of these eureka moments,” Sturdevant says of seeing the family’s census records open up. “These people deserve to be found. They want to be found. It’s really moving for people, regardless of what they think they know, to see: This is him, listed with his family … it sets you out on a mission.”

A glance at a sample Toronto downtown census ward reveals a neighbourhood of newcomers.

There is Farris Emid, 44, who came from Syria in 1897, with four children and a wife. The family rented a home at 122 Queen St. E. in 1921. Emid spoke English, was Roman Catholic, and was a manufacturer. His eldest daughter, 21, was a bookkeeper.

Mark Hong, rented a place at 100 Shuter St., was 50, and came to Canada from China in 1900. He lived with two lodgers, also from China. They all worked in laundry, and although Hong could speak English, none of the men could read or write in English.

The census also shows institutions, such as the Woodstock Epileptic Hospital, the Toronto Home for Incurable Children, and the Toronto Gaol. Percy Smith, a 79-year-old butcher from England, was counted an inmate in 1921, among labourers, blacksmiths and messengers.

Emeline Hudson, a housekeeper, was also incarcerated in 1921. At 43, she was widowed, 10 years after arriving in Canada from England. She could read and write, and earned $250 in the previous 12 months. What was her crime?

These are the questions that keep genealogists hooked. The census, with its basic data about location, marriages and profession, offers a key to unlocking other secrets, available either online or in other archival records.

Library and Archives Canada has never published the census without a partner. Transcription and organizing work has already begun at Ancestry.ca, so people can search by name, location, and other key details, later this year. The raw data is available for free on the private site already, and according to Anderson, will also be available on the government site in three years.

“We have the infrastructure that Library and Archives Canada just quite frankly doesn’t — the servers, the staff, the ability to get it up online and make it searchable. We have partnered with them for many other collections. We’ve already indexed and digitized the images for the passenger lists and other censuses going back to 1851,” she says.

“Our collaboration with Ancestry makes Canadian census records among the most available online in the world,” a Library and Archives spokesperson wrote in an email.

Sample of information in 1921 Census Tenure and class of home (owned or rented, rent paid, class of house, house occupied by family) Marital status (single, married, widowed, divorced, or legally separated) Country or place of birth (if Canada, specify province or territory) Country or place of birth for person’s father and mother Year of immigration to Canada, if an immigrant Racial or tribal origin Religion Can read and write Chief occupation or trade Total earnings in past 12 months

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