SIMBAD references

The existence of faint blue stars far above the Galactic plane that have spectra that are similar to nearby Population I B stars presents several interesting questions. Among them are the following: Can a Population I B star travel from the disk to a position many kiloparsecs above the plane in a relatively short main-sequence lifetime? Is it possible that single massive star formation is occurring far from the Galactic plane? Are these objects something else masquerading as main-sequence B stars? This paper (the first of two) analyzes the abundances of a sample of these stars and reveals several that are chemically similar to nearby Population I B stars, whereas others clearly have abundance patterns more like those expected in blue horizontal-branch (BHB) or post-asymptotic giant branch stars. Several of those with old evolved star abundances also have interesting features of note in their spectra. We also consider why this sample does not have any classical Be stars and identify at least two nearby solar-metallicity BHB stars.