Not All Those Who Wander are Lost... But Maybe They are Strays

In the famous words of J.R.R. Tolkien, “Not all those who wander are lost.”1 But finding records of our wandering family members can be a challenge.

The term stray refers to a non-local who shows up in a record. And a stray record is the record that contains that individual. For instance, a burial record that includes a person from a different county, a probate record filed in a court other than where the deceased resided, or a marriage record where one party is from a parish in a different part of the country. In England, records of strays used to be added to the National Strays Index so others might be able to find their wandering relatives. While the index is no longer active (no new names are being added), the indexes that were created can still be helpful.

What is the National Strays Index (NSI) and how did it work?

The National Strays Index (NSI) was administered by the Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS). When strays were found, they were sent to the Federation of Family History Societies who then passed them on to the originating county. For instance, if a groom were from Yorkshire but married in London, he would be a stray. If a London marriage record identified the groom’s place of residence as Yorkshire, then the associated Yorkshire family history society would be notified that there was a record for him in London. The National Strays Index sounds great, right?

The second page of a strays index for Northamptonshire marriages records that Matthew Adams and Mary Rands married in Thornborough, Buckinghamshire. Matthew is identified as being from “otp” [of this place], meaning he was a resident of Thornborough. Mary was listed as being a resident of “Cosgrave” [Cosgrove], Northamptonshire. If someone were researching the Rands family, the strays index could lead to the marriage record.

Here’s the catch…the strays index is very incomplete...and has been discontinued. The index relied on family history society contributions.2 A society would have to submit the name to the FFHS, who would then send it along to the associated county. Each society had their own stray coordinator.3 Different societies likely collected strays through different means. Some may have relied on researcher submissions and others may have had strays extraction projects or some combination of the two.

Sometimes only some of the strays from one record set, such as marriages from a particular parish, were added to the index. It really depended on the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the stray. Was it through an individual conducting research or was it during some sort of extraction project? While the strays index is incomplete, the efforts made years ago are still beneficial.

The majority of the stray records were from census records. This was essential for finding people who moved. Prior to digital indexes, it would be very difficult to locate someone who moved to a different county. These strays indexes were invaluable to researchers. However, now the UK censuses are digitally imaged and digitally indexed, and both the place of residence and the place of birth show up in the index. The strays indexes for censuses are essentially obsolete. (However, if you can’t find someone in the censuses, finding an old strays index might be worth consulting. Sometimes things are indexed incorrectly and can therefore be difficult to find. Consulting multiple indexes can be helpful.)

While the census strays index may have become obsolete, other stray records, such as marriages, probate and court records, and burials would still be relevant. However, an article on the FamilySearch wiki said that since fewer and fewer people had been collecting strays, the program was shut down shortly before the article was written (2012).4

I think it is a shame it was discontinued, but also understandable. In my early research years, before the index was shut down, I was completely unaware it existed. If I had, I would have been happy to contribute. There have been multiple times when I have seen a document involving someone from another location and I thought there was no way anyone would find this.

Perhaps people stopped contributing because they believed their efforts were no longer needed due to the increase of records becoming available digitally. While technology has definitely made research easier, it still isn’t perfect. Many indexes only include the names of the individuals, not their residences. For instance, marriage records often do not index where the individuals were living. You would have to physically look at the record. And while that might be fine for some more unique names and the number of records you would have to look for is minimal, if you have a common name, such as John Taylor, one of my ancestor’s names, it can be difficult to sort through the hundreds, or even thousands or possible entries. However, as new indexes are being created, more information is typically included in the index, so strays may be easier to find moving forward

Where can I find strays indexes?

When the NSI was up and running, the FFHS sold microfiche of these stray records. Additionally, many family history societies published records of strays that were available for purchase. Today, some are available online and out of print stray publications can sometimes be found in libraries.

Price Genealogy has a page on their website that links to some of the different places where you can find strays. Some links no longer work and some are to a book you might only find in a library, but the website is informative and worth looking through. Use the “Find” option to search for strays (Command+F for Mac and Control+F for PC).

Familysearch wiki has a few links to records of strays. The Northamptonshire page I linked to above was found on a familysearch wiki page.5

Familysearch catalog includes resources for stray record indexes. Most of the ones I’ve looked at were links to books you can look at only in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. But I did stumble across one that was digitized and available for viewing online. I recommend using a keyword search for the county and the word strays.

Family history societies may still publish their own list of strays. Check the website for the family history society that covers your geographical location of research. Old stray records were typically organized by county. If the county of interest has multiple societies, check each one. One may have stray records available but another may have decided stray records are obsolete.

There is a British genealogy forum for submitting strays. It is a little harder to search through, but it does have a search option. The forum is active and users are still adding to it. It’s not organized by county or surname, so there is a lot more to sift through, but it is the only active strays “index” I am aware of.

If you are struggling to find a relative, they may be a wanderer and might show up as a stray in a record. It may be worth consulting a strays index! But then again, maybe they are lost and don’t want to be found. :)

  1. J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001), 167. ↩

  2. Mark D. Herber, Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, Second Edition (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2005), 679. ↩

  3. Eileen A.K.A. BeeE586, comment on forum “Strays Index,” British Genealogy (https://www.british-genealogy.com/forum: posted 29 May 2010). ↩

  4. FamilySearch Wiki (www.familysearch.org/wiki), “England Household Items, Samplers, Society Minutes, Strays, Subscribers Lists (National Institute),” rev. 18 Sept 2014. ↩

  5. FamilySearch Wiki (www.familysearch.org/wiki), “Northamptonshire Church Records,” rev. 16 April 2021. ↩

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