Census and Voter List Information
Morrys in BC 1898 Voters List
Three Morry names appear in the 1898 Voters List for British Columbia. This is surprising as there were several Morry families that had already emigrated to BC over several generations by this time. It isn’t clear why they did not show up on the list; perhaps they were not land owners and could therefore not be registered to vote.
Morrys in Burrard District (BC) Census 1901
The Morry names that appear in the 1901 Census of Burrard District, BC are all relatives, having emigrated from Newfoundland themselves or being descended from emigrants from Newfoundland.
Morrys in BC Vital Statistics
All the Morrys currently living in British Columbia descend from emigrants who left Newfoundland, beginning in the mid-1800s. Each successive generation has seen a few Morrys move west. The British Columbia provincial government is better than most in making less sensitive vital statistics readily available on the web. This file includes all birth, marriage and death information that is published on Morrys. There are only 30 records. All are direct descendants of Matthew Morry of Devon.
Morrys in UK 1901
I have often wondered if there are any remnants of the family of Matthew Morry who remained in England after he emigrated to Newfoundland in the late 1700s. Keeping in mind that the family name had only just begun to be spelled relatively consistently as “Morry” in his generation, it is not safe to assume that the descendants of any of those who remained behind in the UK would still be using that spelling of the name. Nevertheless, I was intrigued to see the enclosed list of Morrys in the 1901 UK census that was compiled by, Kath Bettess, one of the researchers in Geoffrey William’s world-wide band of Morey researchers. Not one of these Morrys resided anywhere near Devon. Most were from the midlands. So unless the entire family pulled up stakes and shifted to an entirely different part of England after Matthew left, it would appear that his descendants and relatives who remained in England reverted to another spelling of the family name, most likely Morey.
1945 Newfoundland Census for Ferryland District (The Goulds to St. Shott’s)
As most Newfoundland family historians and genealogists know, someone made a terrible mistake when the completed 1945 Newfoundland Census folio sheets were bound into volumes with the result that the right hand side of each ledger sheet seldom matched the left hand side. This became known in 1999 when the LDS obtained permission from the Newfoundland Archives to microfilm the entire collection. But other than putting notifications to this effect on each of the microfilms, they did nothing to rectify the problem and the Provincial Archives have never dealt with it either.
Recently (May-June 2020), being housebound due to the lock-down during the Covid-19 Pandemic, I took the time to download all of these mismatched sheets from the FamilySearch website (there are 180 pages) and digitally cut and paste back together the two sides of each sheet so that they matched. In so doing, it is now possible to see the correct professions, religion and so on for each individual in the census, something that was heretofore essentially impossible to do.
I hope that others visiting this site will find this as useful as I have in properly completing the Census data for my relatives in my family tree.