Researching my Stranger ancestry quickly took me to the village of Holne on the eastern side of Dartmoor in Devon (the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin shown here on a characteristically misty Dartmoor morning).
I was greatly helped in getting started by published research already carried out by Edward Davies (see Edward Davies' research). Particularly useful also was Brian Brassett's transcription of the Holne parish registers from around 1600 (see Holne - Devon : A transcript from available parish records).
Richard Stranger (b.1712, Holne) was my 6th great grandfather. I am directly descended from Thomas Stranger (1797-1868), a great grandson of Richard. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to be certain about the generations earlier than Richard, although it is quite likely that he was son of a Richard (born about 1670, Holne), who in turn may have been son of a Matthew Stranger (born about 1640, died 1700, Holne).
Virtually all of the Strangers in Devon were either farmers or sons of farmers. The limited availability of farming land, together with the large families that are typical of farming communities, meant that successive generations had to spread out, while staying broadly in and around south-east Dartmoor.
One significant exception was one of Thomas's brothers, another Richard (1785-1869) who married Mary Easterbrook (1787-1871) from a great Dartmoor family. Around 1835 he moved his family (including most of his 12 children) to Guernsey, where many of them became involved in stone quarrying. But clearly life was not that easy as several of his children and near relatives later emigrated to Victoria, Australia between 1853 and 1854 - and from whom most of the Strangers in Australia are believed to descend.
Otherwise, it was not until my 2nd great grandfather, yet another Richard (1825-1882), son of Thomas, that there was any notable move away from Dartmoor. Richard married Elizabeth Berry and farmed initially near Ilsington on the eastern side of Dartmoor, but around 1871 moved his family to Porthallow, near Talland in Cornwall, as recounted in Strangers in Talland, while his brothers Thomas and John both emigrated with their families to the United States.