James Stokes and Mary Stokes Removal Godmanchester to Conington

There are many removal orders in various record sets.  In the Huntingdonshire Archives there is a Removal Order for James Stokes and Mary Stokes being removed from Godmanchester to Conington in 1775.

The reference number for this is HP34/13/3/5 and are part of the record set for the parish of Godmanchester St Mary's Church. No children are mentioned in this archives index, just James and Mary.

I wonder what their story was. I can imagine them bumping their way home on a little cart .... the distance from Godmanchester to Conington is about 8 miles.

James and Mary Stokes aren't in my family tree, but my eyes are drawn to the Stokes name in the Huntingdonshire area.

I noticed that a James and Mary had quite a few children baptised at St Mary's church Conington.  I wondered if it's the same couple!  FreeREG shows baptisms of Mary in 1778, but then a burial of a Mary, wife of James, in November 1778.  Then, in 1779 there is a burial of Mary, daughter of James.  However, in 1783 there was another baptism of a Mary, daughter of James/Mary.  This sort of confusion is often found in parish records.  You wonder, then if James went and got himself another wife called Mary, or if there were two James Stokes' and various Marys in the village!  There are further baptisms for James/Mary in Conington in the coming years.

Findmypast has one James Stokes married in 1774 in Huntingdonshire, but without a current subscription I can't even guess if it's this one.

If the Stokes family of Conington are in your family tree, that's quite a lot of sorting out that'd need to be done there!

And, if that weren't enough confusion, there are actually two Coningtons in the Cambridgeshire areas:

• One Conington is adjacent to Swavesey, Cambridgeshire
• The other Conington, Huntingdonshire is 15 miles North West of Conington Cambs.  

Baptisms and marriages have been extracted onto the IGI/Familysearch website.

Sources: CALM, Cambs Archives Catalog; FreeREG.

Finding People Who Were in WW1: Absent Voters Lists, Cambridgeshire

If you don't know IF somebody fought in WW1, then that's often an annoyance, but there are ways you can try to find out.  One way of finding people who were in WW1 is to look at the Absent Voters Lists, 1918-1921.

The Absent Voters Lists have over 20,000 records of people who were serving with the auxiliary forces, merchant seamen, diplomats and others working in war effort occupations.  They are lists of eligible voters who were absent from their homes.  The names of absent voters were sent to the War Office who arranged for voting cards to be sent to people serving in the UK and they sent ballot papers to those in France.

The Absent Voters Lists were completed by August 1918 and published in October 1918. This delay means that the lists might include people who were killed, missing or had been taken prisoner between the dates of compilation and publication.

These Absent Voters Lists can reveal an ancestor's name, a description of the work they were doing for the war effort - and their qualifying premises, which is their permanent home address.

Of course, a record set of 20,000 compared to the "millions who died" that we're told about, means that you might start off thinking "I'll never find him in that" - but if you don't look, you'll never know!

Using Findmypast and filtering down to the county of Cambridgeshire there are 132 images - and when I typed in the surname of my Great-grandfather, the list reduced to 61 (still too many), so then I put in his first name and it gave 0 results.  This is what I expected as I've never heard any clue that my great-grandfather did anything in the War.... he'd have been 34 when it started, which isn't too old.  So I need to find out what he DID do.  I suspect it was a protected occupation probably.  Another avenue to chase up!

Links to Cambridgeshire Records

I've compiled the list below of links to Cambridgeshire Records to help myself quickly go directly to the sections of the family history websites I regularly use.  This saves me from forgetting they exist, and saves me some annoying selections I'd have had to make to get to those parts of the website.

FindMyPast: 

Once the page has loaded, just click EDIT on the left to add relevant names:

• Cambridgeshire Absent Voters List, 1918-1921 - 132 images/results (October 2015)

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Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers 1832-1932

Findmypast have released the Electoral Registers of 1832-1932, which includes the Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers and the Huntingdonshire Electoral Registers.

From 1832 if you were eligible to vote then your name was on the list.  Being eligible changed over the years, women didn't get the vote at all until 1918.  In the early days, to be eligible, you pretty much had to be male and a resident or house owner.  The electoral registers were compiled every year, although not all will have survived, of course.

If you are trying to find family before the 1840 Census, then this might be your best chance.  I've several people in my family tree who died between 1832-1840, so I'll be looking for them in the Electoral Registers.

The Electoral Registers 1832-1932 comprise of 5.4 million images, containing 220 million names.  With a good wind and some luck you might find your lost people in there!

I've people to find in the Huntingdonshire Electoral Registers and the Cambridgeshire Electoral Registers, so this is a short post!

Having had a quick look, one of the families I was after isn't found earlier than 1885, which is annoying - but I have to be grateful that the records are online at all :)  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.... I have to remember to be grateful at what IS there and not annoyed by what is NOT there!