INTRODUCTION

Details of the various types of Stray held on the Cambridgeshire FHS Database can be found on this page. For all Strays submissions please contact the Strays Coordinator for LOOKUPS please use the on-line form or perform your own search.

Please ensure you have used your CORRECT email address and it is entered correctly

Stray Definitions

In their purest form "Strays" are persons who were born within the County with a reference recorded outside of the County of birth. The 13,000+ strays recorded for Cambridgeshire do not necessary fall into this pure format. There are various categories.

Stray: Born in the County of Cambridgeshire with an event recorded outside of the County
Out of County Marriage: A person resident within Cambridgeshire but married outside of the County
Transient: A person moving from/to Cambridgeshire e.g Settlement Examination or Removal Order

Settlement Papers.

The parishes were required to look after their own poor. This could become a burden. So when someone wanted to move into a parish and they appeared to be unable to support themselves - i.e. a single woman expecting a child - the parish tried to determine if that person could claim welfare from the parish. If not they were sent back to their own parish.

There are at several forms for settlement papers. Examination papers, settlement certificates and removal papers.

Settlement Certificates record the movement from a place, county to another place, county.

Settlement Examination Papers detail the place a person was living, county and the place they would like to settle at.

Removal Orders detail a place, county where a person had settled and the place, county to which they were being lawfully removed to.
Academic: A person who by residence is associated with Cambridge University but not the County
Military: A person serving with the Cambridgeshire Miltia or the Armed Forces relating to Cambridgeshire but not necessarily a resident of Cambridgeshire
Manorial Records and Wills: Persons mentioned as witnesses, beneficiaries, bondsmen, etc. within Manorial Records, Wills, Inventories, etc. These persons may be resident within the County or external to it.
Other: Ad hoc references to persons living or born in Cambridgeshire who are mentioned in various articles or documents

Information Requested

SURNAME (capitalised if possible e.g. EDWARDS)
Forenames
Title (if any e.g. Rev., Sir))
Reference Place (the out of County town/city name )
Reference County/State (the County/State within which the Reference Place lies)
Country (if outside the UK e.g. CANADA)
Cambridgeshire Town/City referred to (e.g. March or "Cambridgeshire" if there is no Reference)
Reference details of the information (e.g. Census 1881 London, Hillingdon RG11/0024
Details of the information (e.g. Aged 31, born Cambridge. Husband John Addison. Residing at The Parsonage, Wotton Underwood, Buckinghamshire.)
Age (if possible)
Date of Birth (e.g. 1842, Aug 1842 or 12 Aug 1842)
Type of Entry (e.g. Census, Manorial Record, Removal Order)

Contact

If you have strays that you think appropriate to add to the database or you wish for an enquiry then please contact the Strays Co-ordinator. If you are wishing for a reply by post then please send a stamped addressed envelope for United Kingdom replies or 3 IRC's and a self addressed envelope for overseas replies.

Surnames already held

By clicking on the appropriate letter on the menu you can see a list of surnames starting with that letter where there are entries on the database.

Published information

There are also several strays listings, drawn from this database, published on the the Cambridgeshire Genweb pages: