Thunder Bay 1871 Census
This article compiles the surviving and verifiable information from the 1871 Census of Canada relating to the area that later became the city of Thunder Bay — in 1871, the western head of Lake Superior around the Kaministiquia River mouth (Fort William / the Hudson's Bay Company post) and the nascent settlement of Prince Arthur's Landing (later Port Arthur).
Overview
The 1871 census was the first census of the new Dominion of Canada. Enumeration began on 2 April 1871 and the census covered only the four original provinces — Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.[1]
In 1871 there was no place called "Port Arthur," and "Fort William" was not yet an incorporated municipality. Prince Arthur's Landing had only been named in May 1870, and the first local municipality (Shuniah) was not created until 1873.[2] The entire Lakehead was therefore enumerated as raw sub-districts of the Algoma West census district.
Administrative structure (1871)
For the 1871 census, the old judicial District of Algoma was divided into three federal census districts. The Thunder Bay area falls entirely within District 90 — Algoma West, the westernmost of the three.[3]
| District | Sub-districts | LAC microfilm |
|---|---|---|
| 88 — Algoma East | A Killarney; B Spanish River; C Mississagua | C-10023 |
| 89 — Algoma Centre | A Bruce Mines; B Sault Ste. Marie | C-10023 |
| 90 — Algoma West | A Batchawana; B Michipicoten; C Pic; D St. Ignace; E Nipigon; F Kaministikuia | C-10024 |
The two sub-districts covering the present-day Thunder Bay area are:
| Sub-district | Name | Covers (1871) | Microfilm |
|---|---|---|---|
| F | Kaministikuia (Kaministiquia) | The Kaministiquia River mouth: HBC Fort William post, the Fort William Town Plot, Prince Arthur's Landing, the Mission, and surrounding Lakehead settlement | C-10024 |
| E | Nipigon | The Lake Superior shore and Lake Nipigon country to the east | C-10024 |
All of Algoma West sits on the single reel C-10024. The entire 1871 census of Ontario was re-filmed in 1975 onto reels C-9888 to C-10570.[4]
The nine schedules
Each sub-district was enumerated across nine schedules, filed in order. Of these, only Schedules 1, 2 and 6 record personal names; the remainder are keyed to Schedule 1 by page and line number.[1]
- Schedule 1 — Nominal return of the living
- Schedule 2 — Nominal return of deaths within the last twelve months
- Schedule 3 — Public institutions, real estate, vehicles and implements
- Schedule 4 — Cultivated land, field products, plants and fruits
- Schedule 5 — Livestock, animal products, home-made fabrics and furs
- Schedule 6 — Industrial establishments (names of proprietors)
- Schedule 7 — Products of the forest
- Schedule 8 — Shipping and fisheries
- Schedule 9 — Mineral products
Geographic coverage in 1871
The Lakehead in April 1871 was a thinly populated frontier of fur-trade posts, missions and a few pioneer families.[5] The places that fell within sub-district F (Kaministikuia) included:
- The Hudson's Bay Company post of Fort William, a minor fur-trade post on the Kaministiquia River after the 1821 HBC–North West Company merger.[6]
- The Mission of the Immaculate Conception, a Jesuit mission established in 1849 in the Ojibwe village on the river (the area now part of Fort William First Nation).[5]
- Prince Arthur's Landing, the federal Department of Public Works depot on the lake, named by Colonel Garnet Wolseley in May 1870 — in 1871 still a small "Depot"/"Station" settlement.[7]
- The Fort William Town Plot and the geographic townships of Neebing and Paipoonge, surveyed in 1859–60 by the Province of Canada's Department of Crown Lands and opened to purchase in 1861.[6]
Historical context: who was at the Lakehead in 1871
The following individuals and groups were active in the area around 1871. Presence in the 1871 census itself should be confirmed against the C-10024 images before any person below is added to the nominal tables.
- Workers of the federal Department of Public Works, building the Dawson Road from Lake Superior toward the Red River Colony after Confederation — a major source of the transient and settling population.[8]
- Hudson's Bay Company staff at the Fort William post.[6]
- Silver-mining prospectors. The McKellar brothers, Peter and Donald McKellar, had surveyed the Current River area in 1866 and opened the Thunder Bay Silver Mine; the silver industry drew workers to the district through the 1870s.[9]
For comparison, the village of Sault Ste. Marie (District 89, Algoma Centre) recorded a population of about 880 in 1871 — making it far larger than the entire Lakehead at that date.[5]
Documented residents (verified against the 1871 census)
The following entries have been confirmed in the original 1871 returns for sub-district F (Kaministikuia) and are sourced individually. This list is preliminary and will grow as the C-10024 images are transcribed.
| Name | Sex | Age | Birthplace | Origin | Religion | Occupation | Census ref. | Source / notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McGillivray, John | M | 30 | Quebec | Scotch | Presbyterian | (lumber industry) | Kam p. 23 | Listed in the 1871 spring census for Kaministiquia. Came to the district to work for the Dept. of Public Works on the Dawson Road; later a Shuniah councillor. Married Mary Jane Hudson (1864). Family later removed to Port Arthur, then Minnesota (1878–79).[8] |
Associated names (presence in 1871 census to be verified): Adam Oliver and Robert Blackwood were, with John McGillivray, the three trustees who petitioned the Crown Lands Department in 1873 for a grant for the site of a Presbyterian church at Prince Arthur's Landing (crown patent issued 25 September 1873) — indicating they were established in the district by the early 1870s.[8]
Schedule 1 transcription (to be completed)
The table below reproduces the practical fields of Schedule 1 — Nominal return of the living. Add one row per enumerated individual, in the order they appear in the returns, preserving the dwelling/family grouping. Record every person (including wives and children sharing the head's surname), since the published indexes capture only heads-of-household and "strays."[10]
Sub-district F — Kaministikuia (microfilm C-10024)
| Dwell. # | Fam. # | Surname | Given name(s) | Sex | Age | Born in last 12 mo. | Married in last 12 mo. | Birthplace | Origin | Religion | Occupation | Marital status | Infirmities / school | Page–Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(Add rows as transcribed. Suggested per-row citation in the Page–Line column, e.g. <ref>LAC, Census of Canada 1871, ON, District 90 (Algoma West), Sub-district F (Kaministikuia), RG 31, microfilm C-10024, p. 23, line 4.</ref> )
Sub-district E — Nipigon (microfilm C-10024)
| Dwell. # | Fam. # | Surname | Given name(s) | Sex | Age | Born in last 12 mo. | Married in last 12 mo. | Birthplace | Origin | Religion | Occupation | Marital status | Infirmities / school | Page–Line |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Other schedules (to be abstracted)
After Schedule 1, the same reel (C-10024) continues with the agricultural, industrial and resource schedules for each sub-district. Of particular value for the Lakehead:
- Schedule 6 — Industrial establishments will name proprietors of sawmills, the HBC operation, and any trades — useful for documenting the early economy.
- Schedule 8 — Shipping and fisheries is relevant given the lake setting.
- Schedule 9 — Mineral products should reflect the early silver activity.
These can be cross-referenced to Schedule 1 households by the page and line numbers recorded above.[1]
How to complete this transcription
- Open the digitized reel C-10024 through the Library and Archives Canada Microform Digitization tool, or use the LAC 1871 census database (which links each indexed record directly to its page image).[4]
- The microfilm images are not searchable by name, but the same images are indexed in an online database searchable by geography — province, district name/number, sub-district number, and place name. Searching with the name fields blank and District = 90 (Algoma West), Sub-district = F, returns the indexed residents, each linking to its scanned page.[4]
- Because the Ontario Genealogical Society index lists only heads-of-household and persons of a different surname ("strays"), open each household's page image to capture the remaining family members.[10]
- Transcribe each individual into the tables above, citing page and line. The standard archival reference is RG 31, e.g. District 90, Sub-district F, page __, line __, on microfilm C-10024.[10]
Secondary works that abstract this enumeration and can corroborate transcriptions:
- Brent Scollie, Thunder Bay Mayors & Councillors, 1873–1945: Including Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario (1884–1945) and their predecessors the Municipalities of Shuniah (1873–1884) and Neebing (1881–1892): A Biographical and Genealogical Dictionary and Electoral History (2000). A biographical dictionary drawing directly on the 1871 Kaministiquia census.[8]
Editorial standard
Only add a person to the nominal tables when their entry has been read in the original 1871 returns (or cited to a reliable secondary source that itself cites the census). Do not infer census presence from later records (church rolls, land patents, later censuses) alone — those establish that a person was in the district, not that they were enumerated in April 1871. Where a secondary source is used, cite both the source and, where given, its underlying census page.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Library and Archives Canada, "Census of Canada, 1871," Genealogy and Family History — Census records. https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/censuses/dominion-canada/1871.html (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ "Port Arthur, Ontario," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur,_Ontario (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ Library and Archives Canada, "Districts and Sub-districts: Census of Canada, 1871, Ontario." https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/censuses/districts/Pages/1871-ontario-districts.aspx (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Library and Archives Canada, "Search Help — Microform Digitization" (1871 census). https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-130-0008-e.html (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Life on Lake Superior's Ontario Shore in 1867, When Canada Was Born," Lake Superior Magazine, 28 June 2017. https://www.lakesuperior.com/travel/ontario/392-ontario-and-lake-superior-in-1867-canada-150/ (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Fort William, Ontario," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_William,_Ontario (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ "North Thunder Bay," Neil Irwin. https://www.neilirwin.ca/communities-2/north-thunder-bay/ (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "John McGillivray," Rootie (genealogy). https://rootie.org/home/genealogy/mcgillivray-family/john-mcgillivray/ (accessed 2 June 2026). Citing Brent Scollie, "Census 1871 Kam p.23."
- ↑ "Evolution of a city — Part 1," Bayview Magazine, March 2016. https://www.bayviewmagazine.com/article/2016/03/evolution-city-part-1 (accessed 2 June 2026).
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 "Index to the 1871 Census of Ontario" (Ontario Genealogical Society / National Archives of Canada). Description of index scope and reference format reproduced at http://www.everingham.com/family/data2/census0.htm (accessed 2 June 2026).