Family History

Research Surgeries

Ely - St .Ives - March - Bar Hill - St Neots - Cambridge

March Research Surgery, 10:00 - 16:00, Tuesday 6th October

St Ives Research surgery, 10:30 - 15:00, Wednesday 14th October

Cottenham Research Surgery, 13:00 - 16:00, Monday 19th October

March Research Surgery, 10:00 - 16:00, Tuesday 20th October

St Neots Research Surgery, 14:00 - 16:00, Thursday 22nd October

Are you struggling to find an ancestor in a census? Can't find a baptism? Want to know more about an area in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire?

Come and say hello and ask our amazing volunteers for help. Pass on the word!

For more information visit our website www.chfhs.org.uk

Upcoming Talks

Wednesday 7th October 2026, 14:00

Art and the History of Medicine with Dr Martyn Thomas

March Library

This talk is about important aspects of the history of medicine as told by paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Find out more or register

Wednesday 21st October 2026, 19:30

Mud, Sweat and Engineers: the making of the modern fens with Alice Whitehead and Yaye Tang

Zoom

This talk will explore how the draining of the fens shaped the lives of local people in the seventeenth century.

Find out more or register

Huntingdon Research Session

October 24th

We will be at Huntingdon Library and Archive Saturday 24th October 10.30AM - 2.00PM for a special research session, so please drop in and see us!

Eltisley Family History Workshop

Saturday 14th November

We will be at the Cade Memorial Hall, Eltisley, on Saturday, 14th November, 11.00am to 4.00pm, and with the Eltisley History Society for a family history workshop so please come and see us if this is in your area.

No need to book an appointment, just come along.

For further information contact Eltisley History Society Secretary Mary Flinders at maryflinders@outlook.com or 01480 880268.

Roots Tech 2027

Registration now open

RootsTech is March 4-6, 2027, and is free online wherever you are. Registration is now open - head here for more information

Society of Genealogists Event

Now available in members' area

If you were unable to attend the Society of Genealogists event about researching in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, it is now available to view in our members' area. Well worth viewing, speakers from the society, CUL, Cambridgeshire Collection, Cambridgeshire Archives services, BALH and A Vision of Britain through time all participated.

Spotlight on - Burwell

Burwell is an extensive village and parish, including part of the hamlet of Reach, with a station on the Cambridge and Mildenhall branch of the Great Eastern railway, and is 5 miles north-west from Newmarket, in the Eastern division of the county, hundred of Staploe, Newmarket union, petty sessional division and county district, rural deanery of Fordham, archdeaconry of Sudbury and diocese of Ely.
The church of St. Mary, at the south end of the village, is a light and elegant structure in the Late Perpendicular style. The register dates from the year 1562, and contains an account of a calamitous fire which took place in 1727, when a barn in which about 140 persons were assembled to witness a puppet show took light from the accidental firing of loose straw, and about 80 persons perished.

Burwell

There are 2106 people in the 1871 census living in BURWELL

Do you have Burwell ancestors?

The Burwell St Mary Parish Registers and assorted nonconformist records are available from our shop

Browse our Burwell Records