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Australasian Strays Register
Probably the most difficult aspect of this project is coming to a clear
understanding of just what constitutes a stray.
A strays' register is a listing of people and events that seem to be out of place. Often our research comes to a sudden halt because our ancestor just seems to appear out of nowhere and no matter where we look we cannot find their origins. Often a strays' register will help. Our English cousins have maintained such registers for many years and a huge database has been developed by AFFHO’s English sister organization, the Federation of Family History Societies. Of course to be of much use such a database has to be large!
Usually strays are picked up and submitted by researchers trawling through material and finding a person that is not where they were expected to be.
Many people confuse a stray with a lost ancestor. In fact the strays most likely to be located will have nothing to do with the finder’s family. They will be encountered while undertaking all sorts of research. They are in effect people found away from where you would expect them to be. For example trawling though a newspaper’s death columns a searcher may come across a tourist from some remote place who has died in the area through some sort of misadventure. This is a very obvious example of a stray and usually the reference found may be by no means as dramatic and may simply refer to the person mentioned in the event as, of somewhere else! In registering these strays that have nothing to do with the researcher, the finder is in fact contributing to the wider knowledge of family history. They are giving something back in return for all the help they may have received by other unknown indexers and researchers who have provided the data that they have accessed. Strays are not your lost ancestors—they are records of someone not in their usual or expected place—someone else’s lost ancestors!
Of course you could say that almost everyone living in our region is a stray as many have ancestors who emigrated to Australia and New Zealand. However, by definition only original settlers could be deemed strays in that they would have left records indicating that their origins were elsewhere.
Technically living people are precluded from the listing without their consent as the Australian Privacy Act and AFFHO’s own code of practice prevents the listing of living people without their expressed consent. Because of this provision the Australasian Strays Register has a cut off time for most submissions. To observe these legislative requirements the Register does not accept entries for living people unless they are the submitter. This means that births and baptism after 1910, confirmations after 1920, and all other events after 1930 will not be accepted unless the submitter's name matches the stray's name. All deaths are, of course, accepted!
A site has been created at AFFHO’s web address (www.affho.org) to allow online submissions. Unfortunately because it is not possible to determine that the submitter is genuinely giving consent for material about a living person, the cut-off dates outlined previously apply to all submissions. Living persons wanting to submit their own record for posterity must do so in writing.
The web site lists all the names of people in the register.
Because the project is just starting, anyone wishing to see details of a name listed in the register can get the result for free via the website or by forwarding the request with a SSAE. In the future when the project grows to a very large database, we may have to introduce a system of fees to access records.
When a submission is made to the register the material will be entered into our database and the online index will be updated periodically. However, this is only part of the task and the register will also operate a clearing-house if the stray’s record indicates that another register (such as the one in England) needs to be informed. We undertake to make every attempt to see that all strays submitted are listed in the appropriate places.
A successful submission will include the following information about the stray:
- Name of stray.
- Full details of the event located including the event, date and place.
- Usual or former place of residence or birth of the stray.
- An extract of the record giving the above details. [optional]
- Full sourcing reference of the record consulted so that anyone else may locate it.
Last modified: 28 February 2006