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England Cambridge (city)

Guide to CAMBRIDGE (city) history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



HISTORY
Settlements have existed around the Cambridge area since prehistoric times. The earliest clear evidence of occupation is the remains of a 3,500-year-old farmstead discovered at the site of Fitzwilliam College.

The principal Roman site at Cambridge is a small fort (castrum) named Duroliponte located on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city center and around the location of the earlier British village.

After the Romans left Britain,there is some evidence that the invading Saxons began occupying the area by the end of the fifth century.

By the 7th century, the town was less significant and was described by Bede as a "little ruined city" containing the burial site of Etheldreda. However another hundred years later, the arrival of the Vikings in Cambridge was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 875. Viking rule, the Danelaw, had been imposed by 878.

LOCATION
Oxford is in central Southeast England. It is 51 miles north west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames (also sometimes known as the Isis locally from the Latinised name Thamesis) run through Oxford and meet south of the city center.

It is located on a flat alluvial plain, and the local area is extremely fertile.

The area has been settled from prehistoric times, and due to a beneficial climate, has been always populated with farms and orchards. Because of this, the city and region has always attracted the landed gentry, with the resulting proliferation of fine period edifices.

A number of Graded English manor houses and palaces are in the local area, and available for tourism. An example is Blenheim Palace and gardens, pictured below.



RELIGION
Because education through the middle ages was always related to religion, Oxford has had a major link to Catholicism. However this was severed due to the emancipation of England by King Henry VIII. At that time, the Church of England was mandated by the Crown for the University.

However in the 19th-century a movement called the Oxford Movement, centered at the University of Oxford, sought a renewal of “catholic,” or Roman Catholic, thought and practice within Colleges and in opposition to the Protestant tendencies of the church. This was countered by the official Church of England, and the University was somewhat discomforted.

Since that time, and more particularly in the late twentieth century onward, and based on the liberal influence of the University, the majority of the population claim no religion.

INDUSTRY
Until the start of the Industrial revolution, Oxford was known as a University town and a market center. However that rapidly changes with the advent of the canal system.

In 1790, the Oxford Canal connected the city with Coventry. The Duke's Cut was completed by the Duke of Marlborough in 1789 to link the new canal with the River Thames; and, in 1796, the Oxford Canal company built its own link to the Thames, at Isis Lock.

In 1844, the Great Western Railway linked Oxford with London via Didcot and Reading, and other rail routes soon followed.

These two major links allowed Oxford to build on its intellectual base and start a plethora of new industries.

By the late nineteenth and early 20th century, Oxford was experiencing rapid industrial and population growth, with the printing and publishing industries becoming well established by the 1920s. Also during that decade, the economy and society of Oxford underwent a huge transformation as William Morris established Morris Motors Limited to mass-produce cars in Cowley, on the south-eastern edge of the city.

However the late twentieth century saw a rapid decline in British motor building, and the Morris factory shut down, as did many of the local breweries and other industries based on labor.

Today, Oxford is back to its roots, with industries such as IT, education, and book printing being its major sources of revenue.

CIVIL REGISTRATION
Birth, marriages and deaths records have been kept by government since July 1837 to the present day. Prior to that, local parishes of the Church of England, and local branches of other faiths were the only repositories of this information. The following link provides access for Canterbury records:


 * Oxford city records


 * UK Oxford BMD


 * Oxfordshire records

CENSUS RECORDS
Census records for Canterbury can be found using the following links:


 * UK census on line


 * Oxfordshire census records

PROBATE RECORDS
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by several locations for Plymouth. Please follow the links below:


 * Oxford wills on line


 * Oxford wills


 * Family search Oxfordshire probate information

CEMETERIES AND GRAVES
There are presently four cemeteries, including oulying cemeteries within the Oxford city district. The link follows:


 * Oxford cemeteries

Other useful sites follow:


 * Oxford cemeteries


 * Oxfordshire

GENEALOGY SOCIETIES AND GENEALOGY

 * Oxfordshire genealogy society


 * Genuki Oxfordshire


 * Find my past


 * Oxfordshire county information