I am not sure where his middle name comes from, but my first guess is that they tried to use his mother's maiden name of Finding in his name and it's just been either misheard or mistranscribed.
As a quick overview, I believe he was in the following locations so far:
1836: Christened, Caldecote
1841 Caldecote (5)
1851 Childerley (15)?
1861 Census Grayingham, Lincs? (25)
1863: Married, Jane Wilson
1865: _dau Lydia Elizabeth born
1867: _son John born
1869: _son William born/died
1871: _dau Mary Jane born
1871 Census Dry Drayton (35)
1881 Census missing
1891 Census missing
1892 _dau Lydia married?
1901 Census Dalby Lincs? (65)
1906 Died Thrapston?
He certainly seems to have moved about a bit, but not far afield overall. These were very changeable times, with the village of Caldecote almost emptying as people emigrated and left for other counties and towns to look for work. Alfred found work fairly locally, this might have been through wishing to stay close to his roots, or no desire to go dragging a family across the country!
1851 Census: In 1851 he seems to be just a mile up the road from home, working on a farm.
1861 Census: In 1861 he appears to be all the way over in Grayingham, Lincolnshire. Quite a few family members have been to Lincolnshire in the past, maybe he's the first? He'd have probably been hired as an Agricultural Labourer at a Hiring Fair. His brother William is in Grayingham in 1901, so the family kept returning to the area. In 1861 Alfred was a boarder in the house of Mary Sleightholme. Alfred was a shepherd and foreman. He was 25 and from Caldecote, Cambridgeshire. Mary Sleightholme was a 57 year old farmer of 250 acres employing two staff. Looking into this a little more, it appears the address would've been Grayingham Grange and she also employed John Wilmott from Dry Drayton in 1861, so it looks at first glance as if Alfred and his local chum John would've gone East together to work on this farm - but when you dig deeper you discover that John Wilmott is the son of Alfred's sister Susannah and also that Alfred's brother William was 1 mile up the road. So this is two uncles and a nephew working together in Lincolnshire: William aged 21, Alfred aged 25 and John aged 16 (although the census says 14)
1863: Alfred appears to have married a Jane Wilson. Jane Wilson is quite a common name, indeed, Alfred's own niece BECAME a Jane Wilson in 1866. Common names can lead to confusion as there did seem to be a name shortage back in the 1700-1800s! This marriage was on 15 November 1863 at St Mary & All Angels, Caldecote, Cambridge. This information is from the LDS website, Film Number 1040424. Alfred is listed as a bachelor of Caldecote, son of John Stokes. He married Jane Wilson, spinster, daughter of Jeremiah Wilson.
1871 Census: Alfred and family have settled in Dry Drayton. By this date they have daughter Lydia Elizabeth Stokes, aged 6; John Stokes, aged 4; Mary Jane Stokes, a new born. They had also had a son, William, who was born and died in 1869, so wouldn't show up in the Census.
1881 Census: I still haven't found him!
1891 Census: Still missing! I've a feeling he might've been in Lincolnshire though, possibly close to Spilsby as there's a possibility his daughter married in 1892 in Spilsby, but I've yet to see enough evidence to prove this.
1901 Census: Alfred and his wife pop up again in Lincolnshire, in Dalby, Lincolnshire. There's been some mistranscrition on the LDS site as it shows a birthplace of Daldcot and a wife of Jenne from Bourne (the Bourn in Cambridgeshire has no "e", but enumerators in Lincolnshire will have been used to the Bourne, Lincolnshire spelling with an "e" at the end) - but it's surely him. Aged 65, Alfred Stokes is an engine driver on a farm, living at Dalby Road, Dalby.
1906 Dies?: I believe Alfred Finden Stokes died in 1906, with his name being spelt Alfred Finding Stokes - that middle name being a nod back to his mother's maiden name. The death recorded a long way from Lincolnshire though, Thrapston, Northamptonshire. Aged 70, the age matches. The name is too much of a coincidence to be ignored.... but I've yet to actually 'prove' it's the same chap. A copy of the death certificate would nail it, for about £10, but Alfred is a "minor" leaf on my tree, so the expense isn't warranted.
I suspect he and his wife moved in with one of their children at some point.
I believe his wife Jane was in the 1911 Census, at Woodford, Northamptonshire and died there in 1915.
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