Place:Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, situated on the River Cam approximately 55 miles (89 km) north of London. At the UK census of 2011, its population was 123,867 including 24,506 students. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951.

The world-renowned University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, the Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital and St John's College Chapel tower. A second university in the city is Anglia Ruskin established in 1992 and evolving from the Cambridge School of Art and the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology.

Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen with industries such as software and bioscience resulting in many start-up companies born out of the university. More than 40% of the workforce have a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average. The Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world, houses the headquarters of AstraZeneca, a hotel and the relocated Papworth Hospital.

The city is adjacent to the M11 motorway and A14 major road. Cambridge station is less than an hour from London King's Cross railway station.

History

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Cambridge#History.

Local government

Since 1974 Cambridge is a non-metropolitan district, the City of Cambridge District – one of six such districts within the county of Cambridgeshire – and is administered by Cambridge City Council. The district covers most of the city's urban area, although some suburbs extend into the South Cambridgeshire District which surrounds the city on all sides.

Religion

Cambridge has a number of churches, some of which form a significant part of the city's architectural landscape. Like the rest of Cambridgeshire it is part of the Anglican Diocese of Ely. Great St Mary's Church has the status of "University Church". Many of the University colleges contain chapels that hold services according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, while the chapel of St Edmund's College is Roman Catholic. Cambridge is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia.

There are two Methodist churches in the city. Wesley Methodist Church was built in 1913, and is located next to Christ's Pieces. The Castle Street Methodist Church is the older of the two, having been built in 1823, and was formerly a Primitive Methodist church.

The City of Cambridge was comprised of a number of ancient parishes during its history and these are listed in the contents of Flendish Hundred. Some of these disappeared over time and those remaining lost their importance with the introduction of civil parishes in 1866, although a number were used as "parishes" within Cambridge Registration District and may be referred to in civil registrations and in censuses. All of the Cambridge ancient parishes listed under Flendish Hundred have been redirected into Cambridge. Greater detail of these ancient parishes will be found in Volume 3 and Volume 10 of A History of the County of Cambridge, noted below.

Research Tips

• Original historical documents relating to Cambridgeshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS
• The Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Family History Society has transcribed the parish registers for many if not all the ancient parishes of Cambridgeshire and these can be purchased from the Society as separate pdfs.
• A History of the County of Cambridge. Seven volumes from British History Online (Victoria County Histories). This is by far the most complete history of the parishes of the county to be found online. From the numbering it would appear that some parts of the county are yet to be published online, but the first two volumes for any county are of little interest to the genealogist. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each parish is listed in the volume's content page.

• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City (Cambridge) and University of Cambridge (published 1959)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 4, City of Ely; North Ely and South Ely, Witchford and Wisbech Hundreds (the cathedral city and liberty of Ely and the rural areas to the west and northwest, including the port of Wisbech) (published 2002)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 5, the Hundreds of Longstowe and Wetherley, west of Cambridge (published 1973)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 6, the three Hundreds of Chilford, Radfield and Whittlesford (in the south of the county, on the border with Essex) (published 1978)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 8, Armingford and Thriplow Hundreds (south and west of Cambridge) (published 1982)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9, Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds (the suburban and rural areas to the north and northwest of Cambridge) (published 1989)
• A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 10, Cheveley, Flendish, Staine and Staploe Hundreds (northeastern Cambridgeshire) (published 2002)

• GENUKI has a page on Cambridgeshire and pages for each of the ecclesiastical or ancient parishes in the county. These give references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. Each parish page includes a map of the parish provided by Open Street Maps.
• The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date.
• A Vision of Britain through Time, section "Units and Statistics" for each parish and borough leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974.
• Map of Cambridgeshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
• Map of Cambridge divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time