This database is planned to contain biographical details of everyone who has been identified as being academically associated with the University of Cambridge, covering the period approximately from 1200 to 1900.
      In addition to the standard printed sources of information by Venn and Emden, which cover men only, we have added information from Newnham and Girton Colleges so that women are also included.
      The term 'Alumni' is used because the great majority of people included are men. Women were not represented in the University until the 1860s, and although they are of course included in this database the awkward 'Alumni/Alumnae' has been avoided.

John Venn (1834–1923) was the Logician and Mathematician
who described what are now known as 'Venn Diagrams'.

He devoted much of his time to the publication of Cambridge University and College records. He and (later) his son, John Archibald Venn (1883–1958), published the four volumes of Alumni Cantabrigienses ... from the Earliest Times to 1751, which appeared between 1922 and 1927.
      John Archibald Venn then continued his father's work, publishing the six volumes of Alumni Cantabrigienses ... from 1752 to 1900 between 1940 and 1954.
      In the 1960s, A. B. Emden worked extensively on material from the earliest times until 1500, and published A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to 1500 in 1963. This largely supersedes the information in Venn for everyone at Cambridge before 1500.
      These ten volumes of Venn, and the volume by Emden, plus information from Newnham and Girton Colleges (the first women's Colleges at Cambridge) form the basis of the biographies presented in this database.
      For a brief description of the project, please read: J. L. Dawson, ACAD – A Cambridge Alumni Database which has been published in: Computers in Genealogy, Vol. 7 No. 8 (December 2001), pp. 363–375.

At present, the whole system is experimental. Data may alter or disappear without notice. We can accept no responsibility for your use of the system or the data contained here.

Please send comments and queries to: service-desk@uis.cam.ac.uk