Another mystery solved -- TWO sons with the same name!

Census takers in early 20th century Canada no doubt had a difficult time of it. Imagine going door to door to visit the new immigrants who might not have been able to speak English and trying to communicate names, ages, dates of birth, etc. Considering so few of the newcomers could read, write or even spell their own name it is no wonder that ethnic names regularly got misspelled. I have been researching my family tree for many years and I usually take the detailed information in the Canadian censuses with a grain of salt. Often, it’s enough to find a family name in the correct location for me to verify a fact or family rumour.

Recently, however, I came across a record that literally made me stop in my tracks. Searching death certificates on the Manitoba Vital Statistics sitefor the family name “Sidor” I came upon a “Nykola (Nick) Sidor” who was sadly only eight years old when he died in 1903. The location put him in the same area as the Sidors in my family, so on a whim I ordered a copy of the certificate. (Vital statistics agencies are doing a wonderful job in providing old records online. As long as the birth certificate is over 100 years ago, the marriage certificate is over 80 years ago or the death certificate is over 70 years ago, the general public can search the records and order a copy of the original for a small fee. The genealogical info on these documents is well worth the cost.)

Not thinking anything would come of it, I checked the Canadian census listings again for this family for 1901, 1906 and 1911 in the Provencher District of Manitoba:

   1901 Nicola Sidor, son of Wasyl and Marie, age 6 born Dec 11, 1894

   1906 Nicola Sidor, son of Wasyl and Mariczka, age 2

   1911 Nicola Sidor, son of Wasyl and Anna (a new wife or another creative mistake? A mystery for another time), age 7 born Aug 1904

For years I just took for granted that the census takers got Nicola’s age wrong because he always showed up in the same family in the census. Or did he? Returning to the Manitoba Vital Statistics site I searched for a Nick/Nicola Sidor born ~1904. Lo and behold I found a record!

The death certificate (1903-06-003460) for poor eight-year-old Nykola Sidor states his address as Stuartburn 24-1-6E. He died June 9, 1903. Unfortunately, there are no parents’ names nor next of kin listed. Born in 1894 he would have been 6 for the 1901 census. The birth certificate (1903-06-140720) for Nick Sidor also states the residence as Stuartburn 24-1-6 and the parents are Wasyl and Maria. He was born June 30, 1903. This child would have been 2 for the 1906 census and 7 for the 1911 census.

Based on this evidence I can only conclude that were TWO Nicolas in this family. Stunned at having found an actual explanation for the disparate ages in the censuses I thought how grief stricken this poor family must have been. They lost their 8 year old son, and later that month when another son was born to them they named him after his brother. How very sad. And how very confusing for the genealogist.