n.a document not in the possession of the authorized custodian, especially a government record in private handsKellar 1939, 30These included archival material which has vanished, archival material which has never come to archival establishments, archival material which has been separated from official custody; and the status before the law of archival estrays.Adams 1939, 94These four precedents, three cases which actually went to trial and one which was compromised out of court, seem to indicate that it is possible to compel the return of archival estrays when the original owner to which they belonged is a continuing corporation or agency.Martin 1955, 318We all know what varieties of things we are apt to find—letters, receipts, account books, diaries, reminiscences, minutes of the meetings of clubs or societies, or even such archival estrays as minutes of county courts; the handwritten versions of sermons, speeches, poems; printed forms filled in by hand, broadsides and handbills, clippings, manuscript maps, blueprints, printed programs, engraved invitations, calling cards, photographs, drawings, scrapbooks—any or all of these things may constitute the personal papers of John Doe or the archives of a church, business firm, or club.Rhoads 1966, 199Archival estrays present another though related problem for archivists, manuscript librarians, dealers, and collectors. These are public records that for the most part were alienated from the Government a long time ago. They may have been removed from Government custody in ways other than outright theft, usually before the establishment of modern means to control Government records, or it may be that pilfering or theft is suspected but has not been absolutely proved.Evans, Harrison, and Thompson 1974, 422ESTRAY. The legal term applied to a record or document not in the custody of the original records creator or its legal successor.
