New access to old sources to help you find your great-grandfather's headstone.

Two key factors that determine the outcome of a search are the skill of the researcher - and the data with which he or she has to work. Inevitably, a keen genealogist will be limited by the accessibility and availability of information sources. Some records no longer exist. Some never did.

We frequently hear tales of how, say, St. Dorilda-in-the-Woods burned down in 1911 with all the church records inside. Perhaps not forgotten, but gone nonetheless. If you harbour the hope that some motivated official wrote down the names and origins of all the thousands of Scots and Irish who poured onto our shores over the centuries, you are in for a disappointment. Immigrants were largely not kept track of as individuals, and "about 300 Scots from the Western Isles" isn't much comfort.

Perhaps more frustrating for the genealogist is to learn that a record exists, but that the agency or person holding the document does not allow access to the resource. Usually this is out of concern for the conservation of the old papers. However there may also be an inability or reluctance to organize the material so that it can be utilized, or possibly sheer inertia is the explanation. Or, as is the case with certain types of records favoured by genealogists - birth and domicile records, for example - the keeper may feel obligated to protect the privacy of the parties named in those records.

Several "new" useful sources are available for searches, either electronically or in microform. The 1881 census of all Canada is presented on a set of three CD-ROMs from the Mormon Church - learn more about this useful resource at www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp. Note that people 100 years ago (including the census-takers themselves) did not enjoy our levels of schooling. If the name has a prefix (Mc, Mac, O‚ or de), try finding it without that syllable at the front. Names ending in "ey" may be written as "ie" or plain "y." Did the census-taker write Thompson for Thomson, Smith for Smythe? Be creative in seeking names under any possible spelling(s).

The 1901 census is currently being put online by volunteers. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are finished, with Prince Edward Island nearing completion. Go to automatedgenealogy.com/census/index.html. The names are better deciphered than in the 1881 census, and visits to the site cost you only the time it takes you to go there.

The 1911 Canadian census may become available in the near future if the concerted efforts of hundreds of Canadian genealogists and historians bear fruit. Perhaps by the time you read this, this battle will be won.

If you're looking for "lost" relatives who may have headed to the US eastern seaboard between 1820 and 1850, note two CD-ROMs from the Genealogical Publishing Company in Baltimore. Visit www.genealogical.com for details and prices of its Family Tree Maker CDs, Passenger and Immigration Lists; Boston, 1821-1850, and New York, 1820-1850. US officials kept better track of early arrivals there than we did here; the number of people listed as arriving from the Maritimes and Newfoundland is high.

In an important step forward in terms of more open records for historians and genealogists, the province of Nova Scotia has established a release policy for its vital records. Birth records will be available 100 years after the event, marriages after 75 years, deaths after a lapse of 50 years. No birth records are available yet, since it will be October 2008 before there are any such records to be released. However, marriages down to 1929 and deaths to 1954 will become more accessible. You must pay a fee to the archives staff to consult these files, at least until processing is completed.

If you seek family members who were Roman Catholics and who lived in the Halifax Archdiocese, you will have access now to those records down to 1920, which is an 11-year advance on the previous cut-off date. For the 1909-1920 period, the diocese has included all of mainland Nova Scotia apart from the three easternmost counties (Pictou, Antigonish and Guysborough).

For those seeking roots in Newfoundland and Labrador, I suggest looking at Newfoundland's Grand Banks Genealogy Site, www.ngb.chebucto.org, which offers a variety of information about a province whose genealogical resources are not abundant. Readers will enjoy this site, and perhaps be pleasantly surprised.

None of these resources will give you all the answers, but they may give you some of what you need to complete the information about people in your family tree. In genealogical research, more than anywhere else, you must leave no stone unturned. Who knows, when you flip over that final figurative piece of rock it might just happen to be your great-grandfather's headstone! Now, there's a thought.

Terry Punch, D. Litt. CG(C), is resident genealogist on CBC Radio's Maritime Noon and editor of Genealogist's Handbook for Atlantic Canada Research.