There are some excellent starting points for Canadian online genealogy research and information, including the Canada Index at Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet, the Canadian Genealogy Centre of the Library and Archives Canada, and the Automated Genealogy web sites. Cyndi's Canada Index has links to scores of useful sites.

In 2006 The Atlas of Canada is celebrating 100 years of mapping Canada's geography and history. To commemorate this Anniversary the Canadian national mapping agency is making available a downloadable free collection of maps of Canada. Non-Canadian genealogists may find them a valuable aid to understanding and finding their way around this vast country. Click on the image (right) to access these maps.

According to the LDS Family Search transcription of the 1881 Canadian Census, there were no Vousdens living in Canada at that time.

CANADA 1901 CENSUS

The Automated Genealogy site hosts a free, volunteer-produced online index to the 1901 Census of Canada, transcribed from the census images provided by the National Archives of Canada. The index is complete with over 5.6 million lines transcribed, links to the images of the original census forms and over 60,000 links to related records. The index is free to browse or search.

A surname index is available for all transcribed records. There are no entries for Vousden but there are Vausden, Vouston and Voustone surnames. At first I thought that all three might be variations or mis-spellings, but having looked in the UK 1881 national index I see that there are both Voustons and Voustones. The three Voustons in 1881 were born in Ireland, Herefordshire and Lancashire, and six of the eight Vaustones were born in Devon and Cornwall. No Kentish connection in sight! Therefore, I have revised my thinking on this, and while there is some room for doubt, I am of the view now that the Voustons and Voustones may well have been accurate spellings in the Canadian census.

However, I am quite sure that the Vausdens are indeed Vousdens, since I already have the one family of this name in the Canadian 1901 census in my own family tree, including a record of them in the UK 1881 census. Moreover, my own reading of the original census page image is that the written surname is VOUSDEN. In 1901 the family of eleven people were resident in Alameda, in Assiniboia district in The Territories province. The family apparently immigrated into Canada in 1889, except for the eldest son James who had arrived ahead of the rest.

Alameda (2001 Census pop. 311) today is in Saskatchewan, 34 mi/55 km ENE of the city of Estevan, and close to the US North Dakota border. The area is known for coal mining, electric power generation, and oil and natural gas production. However, farming and agriculture remain an important part of the local economy. Not only is there extensive farming in the immediate area, but within 1hr of Estevan, more than 40,000 people live in rural communities. Clicking on the MapQuest map (right) will bring forward a larger version, where Estevan and Alameda will be found located in the lower right corner.

Vousdens in Canada 1901 census

Name	Sex	Relationship to head of family or houshold	Single, married, widowed or divorced	Date of birth	Age at last birthday
James Vousden	M	Head	M	July 27 1847	53
Martha Vousden	F	Wife	M	March 9 1849	52
James Vousden	M	Son	S	July 6 1869	31
Elizabith Vousden	F	Daughter	?	June 26 1871	29
William Vousden	M	Son	S	June 21 1873	27
Charlie Vousden	M	Son	S	November 1878	22
Frank Vousden	M	Son	S	June 1 1880	20
Rose Vousden	F	Daughter	S	September 4 1885	15
Samuel Vousden	M	Son	S	April 9 1889	11
Sarah Vousden	F	Daughter	S	March 25 1892	9
William A Vousden	M	Grand Son	S	May 25 1893	7

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This James and Martha Vousden and family is the same one enumerated at Marl Place Cottage, Brenchley, Kent, England in the 1881 census, notwithstanding some minor discrepancies, for example, Charlie's age. James Vousden was born in about 1848 in Brenchley, Kent. He married Martha Wheatley, daughter of Elizabeth Wheatley, in 1868 in Tunbridge. Martha was born in 1848 or 1849 in Lamberhurst, Kent. Their daughter Elizabeth married Wesley Lester, 21 March 1892, Ernestown, Ontario, Canada. In 1881 the family was enumerated as follows:

James and Martha Vousden and family in UK 1881 census

Name	Sex	Relationship to head of family or houshold	Married, Unmarried, Widowed or Divorced	Age	Birthplace	Occupation
James Vousden	M	Head	M	33	Brenchley, Kent	Agricultural Labourer
Martha Vousden	F	Wife	M	32	Lamberhurst, Kent
James Vousden	M	Son	U	11	Brenchley, Kent	Scholar
Elizabeth Vousden	F	Daughter		9	Brenchley, Kent	Scholar
William H Vousden	M	Son		7	Clapham, Surrey	Scholar
Walter Vousden	M	Son		4	Brenchley, Kent
Charlie Vousden	M	Son		5 months	Brenchley, Kent

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CANADA 1906 AND 1911 CENSUSES

Returning to Canada, the same Automated Genealogy web site has several projects under development, including an Index to the 1906 Census of the Northwest Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. (Note: the 1906 Census only covered these three prairie provinces, there was no census of the other provinces in 1906.)

There are two Vousdons in the limited 1906 census, both listed as Heads of Household and single. It would seem likely that this Frank is the one in the 1901 Canadian census and Walter may be his brother, who is listed in the UK 1881 census. They are living in Frobisher, a small township on Highway 18 between Estevan and Oxbow. The census image also includes details of amounts of livestock they own. One can only wonder what happened to the rest of the family - whether they moved to another part of Canada (not included in this regional census), leaving these two sons behind, or perhaps they returned to England.

Frank and Walter Vousdon in Northwest Provinces 1906 census

Name	Age	Province	District	Subdistrict Number	Place of birth	Year of immigration	Address
Frank Vousdon	23	SK	Assiniboia East District	09	England	1889	Frobisher
Walter Vousden	30	SK	Assiniboia East District	09	England	1889	Frobisher

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Finally, the Automated Genealogy volunteers are now indexing the 1911 Census. This site is far from complete but transcribed pages can be browsed, however, currently search facilities are only available at the enumeration district level.

At the time of writing (April 2007), the 1911 index has only one Vousden: Sydney Vousden, single, 19 years of age, born in September 1892. Sydney was enumerated in Enumeration District 3 (Stewarttown Village), Esquesing, Halton, Ontario. The original census page shows that he was working on a farm and had only arrived that year from England. [The indexes to the UK Civil Registers of Births contain no Sydney Vousden born in the year 1892. However, there are two in the following year, either one one of which, or neither, may have been the Sydney who arrived in Canada in 1911.] In addition, in 1911, there were a James and Matilda Vosden, aged 78 and 65 years, resident in Enumeration District 22: Southwold, Elgin West, Ontario. They may or may not have been Vousdens.

SASKATCHEWAN HOMESTEADING

The Saskatchewan Homestead Index Project has compiled and published online records of the men and women who, from 1872 to 1930, under the terms of the Dominion Lands Act, took part in the homestead process in the area now known as Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan is the only province where the original homestead records are still available for public research and also where there is a comprehensive card index to the homestead files. The records are the key to the province's settlement history.

In 2003, volunteers of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS) began the Saskatchewan Homestead Index Project (SHIP). With the encouragement and co-operation of the Saskatchewan Archives Board, the SGS is making the entire homestead index of some 330,000 card entries available in searchable digital format.

The database includes 8 Vousden records, comprising Charlie, Frank, James senior and junior, Walter and William Henry. These are almost certainly the same Vousden family members as described above. Using the index file number, the researcher can obtain information about the settler such as nationality, place of origin and family makeup. There may also be various sworn statements and information about the homestead itself including required agricultural improvements on the land before ownership was granted; in some cases, correspondence about matters concerning the homestead may be included.

For further information about the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society and the Saskatchewan Archives Board, see the SGS web site and the Archives' web site. The LINKS pages on both sites are very helpful for anyone undertaking family or local history research in Saskatchewan or Canada generally. The two images, of the wagon and the homesteaders, are reproduced here courtesy of the Saskatchewan Archives Board (photo numbers SAB R-B3368 and R-B9968 respectively).

ESTEVAN DEATH RECORDS

The Estevan Community Access Project has compiled and published online records of thirteen local cemeteries, including that at Bienfait, where the deaths of two Vousdens are recorded (on site recording of data from headstones at cemetery by Rosemary Mack, May 1992, and compiled and submitted by Rosemary Mack, October 1994).

In June 2006 the online Canada411 white pages telephone directory listed 18 Vousdens, resident in three of the twelve provinces. There are two entries in British Colombia (in Sorrento and Chilliwack), two in Nova Scotia (both in Lunenburg), and the remainder are in Ontario. Ontario's Vousdens are distributed between Port Carling, London, Brampton, Orangeville, Scarborough, Stratford, Oakville, Mississauga, Dooley Creek and George. There are no business entries with the Vousden surname.

The Library and Archives Canada website has a record of an M.A. thesis titled "Shades of grey : the development of the criminal and anarchistic characters in the novels of Wilkie Collins by Philip J. Vousden", at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario (Dept. of English), 1984. The author and his family are living and known to me, so I will publish no more at this point.

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