Category: Recensement de la Nouvelle-France en 1666
Categories: Canada, Nouvelle-France | Chronicles of New France | Quebecois
The 1666 census was done under the direction of Intendant Talon. He arrived in the colony in September 1665, wanting to know the population, resources and the economic conditions of the country.
"Many have asked what time of year the first census of New France was established. Cyprien Tanguay, author of Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families, established conclusively, using the registers of civil status, the 1666 census was done in the months of February and March." "Trudel 1995-41">Trudel 1995, p. 41:« Dans son ensemble, le recensement couvre une période qui débute dans les premiers jours de janvier, bat son plein dans les mois d’hiver et se termine vers la fin d’avril, sauf à Québec où il se prolonge jusqu'à la fin de juillet. Tout semble terminé quand les navires arrivent, les premiers jours d’aoùt. »
Intendant Jean Talon began his administrative appointment by taking stock of the colony. This included a systematic census in the winter of 1665 - 1666, and another census in 1667, done after receiving queries from minister Colbert on the small numebrs shown. He conducted his census on the de jure principle – that is, counting people where they normally reside.
The 1666 census is in 163 pages of manuscript. It is deposited in the Archives of Paris, and there is a copy in the Parliamentary Library at Ottawa.
- The handwritten 1666 census can be viewed here at BAC-LAC.
- Talon's listing of the inhabitants of New France in 1666, handwritten in cursive, was transcribed into print form within Benjamin Sulte's History of French Canada, Volume IV, Chapter IV, pages 64 - 78, - 1977 edition. A copy of the relevant documentation can be opened and downloaded here. Note: Sulte did not have an original but only a handwritten copy, which contained errors and omissions. See below report of the archivist of the province of Québec for a more complete transcription.
- Report of the Archivist of the Province of Quebec for 1935-1936, printed for His Majesty the King, 1936
- Jean-Guy Senécal, Laval University, Québec, used optical character recognition software to render photocopies of Benjamin Sulte's transcription of the 1666 Census of New France into a searchable word-processor document that facilitates working with the census report. A copy can be downloaded at: Google Document: 1666 Census of New France].
- Another transcription :
Pascal Bouchard's Census pages
- Trudel, Marcel (1995). La population du Canada en 1666 : recensement reconstitué, Septentrion: Sillery, ISBN 2-89448-022-9 (Trudel shows on pp. 54-57 in this book that the 1666 census was missing 25% of the population; hence the sub-title recensement reconstitué.)
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