Greetings All. Since my original post this morning (Are records now available???) regarding the CBC News article about the online census database a number of listers have written protesting a project that does not give us what we seek, i.e. access to individually identifiable records of Census. Perhaps those with complaints did not see my subsequent post with the clarification I received from Professor Gaffield. Perhaps they did. In any case, further clarification may be needed. The article itself is, in my opinion, somewhat misleading and has led to some misunderstanding. The opening sentence indicates, without actually so stating, that the Census records themselves will be placed on line for all to see. That indication was reinforced by the caption under the picture referring to records from 1911 to 1951 being added to existing databases. Under current circumstances, this is not going to happen. I support this project. It is not something new, but a continuation of research that has been done by historians using records of Census up to 1901. As I understand it, the researchers will not see the original schedules with names on them, or if they do, they are not permitted to divulge the identities of anyone found on them. They do not have access to all records, but to a 5% sampling of them. It is difficult to visualize how nameless records would be of much value to genealogists, however the aggregate information is of great value to historians, sociologists and others. During our campaign to regain public access to Historic Census records we have had a great deal of support from historians. In fact, there is evidence of historians fighting to regain access before many genealogists, including myself, became aware of the problem. As historians have supported us in our quest, I feel we should support them in this project, or at least not protest against it. Some have complained about the $14 million cost of this project. For those of us on fixed incomes in particular, $14 million is a lot of money. But look at it another way. $14 million over four years, divided by more than 32 million people in Canada is about ten cents per person per year, or about one-quarter the average cost of a single cup of coffee. We will keep fighting until we get the access to name-identified records we seek. Hopefully that will happen sooner, rather than later. Happy Hunting. Gordon A. Watts gordon_watts@telus.net Co-Chair, Canada Census Committee Port Coquitlam, BC http://globalgenealogy.com/Census en français http://globalgenealogy.com/Census/Index_f.htm Permission to forward without notice is granted.