- source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
- source: Family History Library Catalog
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NOTE: St. Ives in Huntingdonshire should not be confused with St. Ives, a large town in in the west of Cornwall, and a parish named St. Leonards and St. Ives which was in Hampshire until 1974 and is now in Dorset. There are other smaller St. Ives which have been redirected to the parish in which they were located.
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- the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia
St. Ives has been, since 1974, a market town in Cambridgeshire, England, around 24 kilometres (15 mi) northwest of the city of Cambridge and 110 kilometres (68 mi) north of London. Until 1965 it was located in the county of Huntingdonshire. Until it became part of Cambridgeshire in 1974, St. Ives was a municipal borough and included, in addition to its own civil parish, the civil parishes of Fenstanton and Hemingford Grey.
Built on the banks of the wide River Great Ouse between Huntingdon and Ely, St. Ives was an ancient parish with a famous chapel on its bridge. In the Anglo-Saxon era, St Ives's position on the river Great Ouse was strategic, as it controlled the last natural crossing point or ford on the river, 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the sea. The flint reef in the bed of the river at this point gave rise to a ford, which then provided the foundations for the celebrated bridge.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, St. Ives was a hub of trade and navigation and the town had dozens of inns and many bawdy houses. Goods were brought into the town on barges, and livestock rested on the last fattening grounds before delivery to London's Smithfield Market. As the railway network expanded and roads improved, the use of the River Great Ouse declined. It is now mostly used for leisure boats and recreation.
The population of St. Ives according to the UK census of 2011 was 16,384.
Research Tips
- Original historical documents relating to Huntingdonshire are now held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at Shire Hall, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB7 4GS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 all the ancient parishes of Huntingdonshire and these can be purchased from the Society as pdfs.
- A History of the County of Huntingdon in 3 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. The chapters are ordered by the divisions of the county called hundreds, but each chapter is linked to the volume's content page. Volume 2 (published 1932) covers Hurstingstone and Toseland hundreds (index of parishes); Leightonstone and Norman Cross Hundreds (index of parishes) are found in Volume 3 (published 1936). Volume 1 is a part-volume describing the religious houses of the county.
- GENUKI has a page on Huntingdonshire 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.
- 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" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions.
- Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1888 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
- Map of Huntingdonshire divisions in 1944 produced by UK Ordnance Survey and provided online by A Vision of Britain through Time
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