Developer

The site is being developed by Celia Renshaw of Chesterfield UK, with support from generous partners.

Scope

The site kicks off with strays mainly in Bucks, Northants, Oxfordshire and a couple of London parishes, but aims eventually to cover the UK. It is completely free to use. However, donations towards the cost of development and hosting are, of course, very welcome and can be made through PAYPAL.

Content

Strays are indexed from my own and other reliable transcripts of baptisms, marriages and burials, in both Church of England and non-conformist registers. Other types of sources will be covered later, but will not include census or GRO indexes, as these are readily available from other websites.

The time period covered is from the start of parish registers (earliest being from 1530s) through to 100 years before current date, in keeping with national policy on privacy and confidentiality.

People who travel as a way of life are also indexed: travelling families, boat people, armed forces, sailors, police, clergy, excise officers and people from abroad. You can search for these using the links on the HOME page. Suggestions for other "movable" categories to index are welcome.

Searching

• You can search the complete site for a surname or location using the search boxes at the top of the home page.
• By clicking on one of the counties or regions listed on the home page, you will retrieve all the strays from that county or region currently in the database. You can access them by clicking on christenings, marriages or burials on the results page or by doing a surname or location search within the county or region.
• By clicking on one of the categories listed under “Travellers” on the home page, you will retrieve all entries in the database for that category and can access them by clicking on christenings, marriages or burials on the results page, or by doing a surname or location search from that page.
• Wildcards can’t be used, so you will need to do separate searches for possible variants of names and locations.

Purpose

The site aims to help family history researchers find people who have "gone missing" from their birthplaces or last known locations and to signpost new areas of research. It is a guide only and original sources should always be checked. Also, while every effort is made to provide correct and accurate indexes, Morganhold cannot guarantee accuracy.

Should you want the full source citation for any stray listed here, your best bet is to contact the relevant Family History Society, Records Office or other resources listed at the bottom of each results page. You can also contact me and I will help if I can - but please be aware that I may not have the full citation on file.

Contributions, comments, corrections and queries

Please use the CONTACT link at top right to make comments, ask questions, point out any mistakes and give ideas for improving and extending the site.

If you have strays on record that you are willing to share with others, please contact me for email or postal address. I need FULL DETAILS including sources for all events submitted, which I will then index and upload to the site. If you would like acknowledgement, please say so and you will be listed on the partners page.