Sable Island and 1891 Census
I have become intrigued by some relatives of mine who lived on Sable Island in the late 1800s. The father was a lighthouse keeper there. I can find the family in the 1881 and 1901 censuses, but can find no sign of anyone from Sable Island in the 1891 census. I think it likely that the island was skipped in that census, but I wondered if anyone had more information.
In both the 1881 and 1901 census, Sable Island is a sub-district of Halifax City, Nova Scotia. I have scoured the 1891 census records for my family and for other residents of the island, with zero success.
In the 1901 census, there is a note from the enumerator that essentially says that he was not sure that Sable Island was part of his district, but since it had been counted as such in "the previous census," he went ahead and gathered the information. That made me think that there must have been some information in the 1891 census. But perhaps he meant the 1881 census. I know little about the Canadian census records.
(The note is on the second page of the PDF referred to at this page:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1901/001013-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=s4sc60br0dhblt57d78q6c98t7&q9=Nova%2BScotia&q1=&q2=&q3=33&q4=&q5=f+8&q6=&q7=&q8=&interval=20http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1901/001013-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=s4sc60br0dhblt57d78q6c98t7&q9=Nova%2BScotia&q1=&q2=&q3=33&q4=&q5=f+8&q6=&q7=&q8=&interval=20)
The remoteness and inaccessibility of Sable Island would certainly seem to make it difficult to include in any census, so it seems likely that it got skipped in 1891. I would appreciate anyone's thoughts on this.