Newbie need to know

[catjoy]

hi all - what does the abrev. IGI stand for?

[MarkJ]

hi all - what does the abrev. IGI stand for?

International Genealogical Index :)

[Sue Mackay]

hi all - what does the abrev. IGI stand for?

The International Genealogical Index is compiled by the LDS Church (Mormons) and is mainly baptisms and marriages from around the world. Many of these have been transcribed from parish registers, though by no means all parishes are represented, and if you see a "batch number" you can be reasonably sure that this is where the information came from. A lot of information, however, was submitted by members and comes from family Bibles, granny's memory or whatever, and as such must be treated with extreme caution. The IGI entries should always be checked, but they are a wonderful finding aid. You can search the index for free at

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=igi/search_IGI.asp&clear_form=true

[Guy Etchells]

The IGI is an index of the Temple Ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

When used as an index of the above ordinances it is 100% correct.

Though the IGI may be (and often is ) used as a rough and ready index of Parish Registers be aware that that is not its purpose and using it that way will return wrong leads.

The IGI is made up mainly of two parts.
Controlled Extractions - Controlled Extractions are records transcribed from microfilms of original Parish Registers or Bishop's Transcripts of parish registers when these were not made available for filming.
Controlled Extractions also contain records transcribed from third party databases such as Gibson's Oxfordshire Marriage Index and other similar databases.

Patron Submissions - Patron Submissions are records sent in by members of the LDS or by members of the general public (do not believe the myth that patron submissions are only by members of the LDS).
As with all research available on the internet some is first class accurate work whilst some is little more than guess-work.

When using the IGI for family history research use it as any other index, merely a clue that a record may survive. Having been given that clue always check the original record to confirm the details.
Cheers
Guy

[Clydene William]

I'm not sure how the LDS did the IGI in England but here in the US years ago, anyone could post their ancestor to the IGI and as much information as they had at the time. None of the information had to be documented. So, we can go to the IGI and look for familiar surnames and contact the person who posted the info to the IGI. Remember, some of the IGI information was known not to be documented and may not be accurate but it does give some avenues for researchers who are at a barickwall. Always document anything you get from the IGI in the US!! Don't take it as the gospel word!

[ChristineR]

And be aware that the IGI is not the extent of the records that are held by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.

They hold a vast amount of filmed records not yet extracted. Copies of these are available to order into to their family history centres all around the world, for an extremely small hire fee. Their holdings are listed on their web site in the Library Catalog.

I am in Australia, but using their service I was able to view the same Parish registers as if I were in the Essex Record Office.

ChristineR :)

[Dargie]

Excuse me butting in ChristineR but I am very interested in what you're saying about the local centres.
Do I call the nearest centre and tell them which parish register I want to view and they get it in for me? That is amazing! I am in Victoria also and thought I would need to go to Blackburn to research now that the censuses do not go back far enough with information.
There seem to be a lot of centres nearby to me in Gippsland.

[ChristineR]

Excuse me butting in ChristineR but I am very interested in what you're saying about the local centres.
Do I call the nearest centre and tell them which parish register I want to view and they get it in for me? That is amazing! I am in Victoria also and thought I would need to go to Blackburn to research now that the censuses do not go back far enough with information.
There seem to be a lot of centres nearby to me in Gippsland.

Hi Dargie,

You have to go into your nearest centre (There is also a list on their web site - Family History centres) You fill in the request sheet, pay your $5 per film and they will telephone you when it arrives. You will need to book time to use their film readers, free, and they might be busy. You get 4 weeks to view the film. I ordered two films the first time - one arrived within a few weeks, the other a few months, but I didn't mind as I live about 50kms from my nearest. It was only open two afternoons a week, but I soon got sick of driving there. Lucky I got whole afternoons on the reader when it wasn't booked out.

You might be able to do it by mail if you ask them to post you the order form.
The film numbers are online- hopefully they have the parish and dates that you want to look at. But they are very helpful and will help you locate the right film numbers to put on your order. I just took a print out of the page off the website that showed the details of one that I wanted.

http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp

Have fun! The first ones I got went back to the 1500s, (two films) not that I could read it :D

ChristineR

[Sue Mackay]

Excuse me butting in ChristineR but I am very interested in what you're saying about the local centres.
Do I call the nearest centre and tell them which parish register I want to view and they get it in for me? That is amazing! I am in Victoria also and thought I would need to go to Blackburn to research now that the censuses do not go back far enough with information.
There seem to be a lot of centres nearby to me in Gippsland.

If you go to http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp
and click on Place Search, enter Blackburn, then click on England Lancashire Blackburn, and finally on Church Records, you should get a list of the parish register films you can order via your local FHS centre. I am not an expert at actually doing this, as I am fortunate enough to be able to travel to County Record Offices in the UK and view the real thing, but I have plans to order up some South African registers this way.

[Dargie]

Thank you both for your advice. I greatly appreciate your help. I will get onto the local centre as soon as possible.
I don't think I will postpone my October trip to Suffolk however! But it will certainly help to have as much as I can documented before we go.
Thanks again
Marjorie