Historical Canadian Censuses and Quebec Civil Registers: An Assessment of Linked Datasets to Compare Population Microdata

Abstract

Data from the seven nominative Canadian censuses from 1851 to 1911 have recently been linked to the vital events found in the BALSAC database in the context of the creation of the Integrated Infrastructure of Historical Microdata of the Population of Quebec (IMPQ). These linked datasets offer a great opportunity to carry a critical evaluation of the sources and to comprehensively assess their reliability over a long and significant period of time. No major issues pertaining to their registration were found and the comparison confirmed both the reliability and the complementarity of the datasets. The portrait of people found in one source only suggests that missed matches are mostly explained by mobility and gaps in the coverage of some subgroups in the civil registers.