You may have heard of the Free Births, Marriages and Deaths site, FreeBMD.rootsweb.com, but did you also know there is a sister site listing records from parish registers, FreeReg.rootsweb.com as well as one listing free census records, FreeCen.rootsweb.com.
From my experience, FreeReg contains similar records to the IGI but with some additions and more complete records. FreeCen is not very complete and the 1891 census seems to be the most complete census. They are certainly worth trying!
Showing posts with label parish records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parish records. Show all posts
23 November 2009
19 May 2006
Research: Online: Using the IGI
19 May 2006
2
One of the most useful web sites for researching your family tree is the IGI (International Genealogical Index) database, at FamilySearch.org.
This site contains thousands of baptismal/christening, marriage and death records from all over the world, collated by members of the Mormon (LDS) church.
Many genealogists criticize the IGI because there are a lot of errors, mistranscriptions, duplicate records, etc. However, it provides a great point of reference when first tracking down your ancestors, to provide clues as to the location of original records, and simply to jumpstart your research.
The IGI allows you to search by last name, firstname, names of parents, name of spouse, year range, location and type of record (birth/christening/baptism, marriage, etc.). In my opinion, the biggest weakness of the IGI is that seemingly reasonably combinations of search parameters are sometimes not permitted. For example, if you try to search on last name + mother's first name + region, you will be told that:
"If you enter a last name without a first name, you must either not enter parent or spouse names, a year, or you must enter a batch number or a film number."
Why? I ask myself.
As you start to use the IGI regularly, you will eventually come across the concept of "Batch Numbers." Batches are essentially groups of records, often collected from a single parish, or group of parishes (or other locations). However, the IGI does not provide full details as to what is covered in each batch. However, various helpful souls have put together indexes of batch numbers, available online, to assist people with their IGI research. One of the best is the site compiled by Hugh Wallis, containing records from North America and Great Britain, which is hosted by Rootsweb.com.
Technorati Tags: genealogy, ancestors, ancestry, family history, family tree, genealogy tips, IGI, familysearch.org
This site contains thousands of baptismal/christening, marriage and death records from all over the world, collated by members of the Mormon (LDS) church.
Many genealogists criticize the IGI because there are a lot of errors, mistranscriptions, duplicate records, etc. However, it provides a great point of reference when first tracking down your ancestors, to provide clues as to the location of original records, and simply to jumpstart your research.
The IGI allows you to search by last name, firstname, names of parents, name of spouse, year range, location and type of record (birth/christening/baptism, marriage, etc.). In my opinion, the biggest weakness of the IGI is that seemingly reasonably combinations of search parameters are sometimes not permitted. For example, if you try to search on last name + mother's first name + region, you will be told that:
"If you enter a last name without a first name, you must either not enter parent or spouse names, a year, or you must enter a batch number or a film number."
Why? I ask myself.
As you start to use the IGI regularly, you will eventually come across the concept of "Batch Numbers." Batches are essentially groups of records, often collected from a single parish, or group of parishes (or other locations). However, the IGI does not provide full details as to what is covered in each batch. However, various helpful souls have put together indexes of batch numbers, available online, to assist people with their IGI research. One of the best is the site compiled by Hugh Wallis, containing records from North America and Great Britain, which is hosted by Rootsweb.com.
Technorati Tags: genealogy, ancestors, ancestry, family history, family tree, genealogy tips, IGI, familysearch.org
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