Climbing Down the Family Tree

According to the marriage contract, Edward Allen Dickins & Sydney Howard Dickins were both in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 1908, when it was written. On an hunch I searched the FamilySearch Pilot site for Sydney Howard Dickins and Edward Allen Dickins...and found that Edward had come in through Ellis Island in 1904! He was 20 years and 4 months, single, a farmer, from "B'head" [Birkenhead] and going to Lincoln City, Nebraska to meet a friend, J. Watson.

So I started searching for more information on Edward and Sydney. I found that the Canadian censues are nearly all available online through their archive. I couldn't find either of them on the 1906 census or the 1911 census and found that they don't have the 1916 census posted. But Ancestry.com had it indexed and I found both of them in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. Now I have to go to the library to get the actual image of the census!

I also have to find out more about this J. Watson character! Nothing so far in immigration on him. In the process, though, I found that FindMyPast.com has indexed out-going ships passenger lists for England, although I didn't find anything that matched the record from Ellis Island. Why? I couldn't find anything on Sydney in those records either. I wonder if they are not yet fully indexed?

Now it is back to the 1901 census and J. Watson. Cheers!