The Nosey Genealogist

You probably may have had some experience of looking up ancestors using the International Genealogical Index (IGI) on the website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) http://www.familysearch.org . If not I should explain that it is a compilation of entries from baptism and marriage registers drawn from parishes and their equivalent form all over the world. For those of us with UK roots it represents us well with index records with some English counties in particular having excellent coverage.

Once again I am indebted to Pharos Tutors for introducing me a handy website that aids the family history researcher find their way around the LDS site and helps us know what registers are available on the IGI. It is the site maintained by Hugh Wallis.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm

As Hugh Wallis says, in the introduction to his website, it is not always simple to find your ancestors (even when they are there to be found in the IGI) using the search mechanisms provided by familysearch.org. The reason being that to search by last name only is not permitted unless you search within a single batch of records at a time or, across the entire country! Now a search for a last name across the whole of England is a very tall order, remember it is not even a search of single county, let alone a town you are having to do. If you have a rare name, Hugh Wallis suggests, might be OK to do, but if you are looking for a Smith or a Jones then you have a big problem!

The possible ranges he allows you to access are the Births/Christenings and Marriages. I really can not recommend this tool highly enough.

Lastly, just remember that the IGI:

• is incomplete – and this applies not only on a parish by parish basis, but to within parishes as well where gaps may also be found

• is compiled from several different types of record including members of the church supplying information that can be inaccurate and not only from the original parish register

• has countless mistakes due to problems with interpreting handwriting and the fore mentioned member submitted entries

• does not, except for a few cases, cover burials;

• is only an index and as such should not be considered a substitute for looking at the original record.

As I try to get back a generation from where the census records on line stop in 1841 I am having to turn to Parish Records. For my Scottish line I have been able to use the easily accessed old parish records (OPR) on Scotlandspeople website, but for my English line the lack of scanned records means the challenge of learning how to break into this area of family history research is a fascinating new subject for me.