Genealogy Chat

Could someone give me the website for IGI please. Can you also tell me if you can search BMD on this website. Betty

Hi Betty You'll find the IGI at www.familysearch.org it's mostly baptisms and marriages with a few deaths/burials.It isn't complete so I hope you'll be lucky :-) Heather

familysearch.org It has the 1881 uk census (+comparable USA & Canada) and the IGI which is made up of church register transcriptions + submissions by individuals. In each case the reliability of the info depends on the quality of the input. 1881 transcriptions (and church register transcriptions) are generally reliable (as to source) but the transcription quality varies. They're good starting places. The personal submissions are as good (or bad verging on horrendous, in some cases!) as the research of the submitter. ALWAYS regard the personal ones as suspect, though they may be a starting point from which to work outward - but just check the arithmetic first, or you end up with people being born before their fathers! Christine

Hi Heather, Thanks for your reply, I thought there was another website apart from FamilySearch. Betty

Were you thinking of freebmd Betty?

Hi Gill and Christine, Thanks for the information, I have never gone into IGI on Family search will have to try it and see what I can find there. Betty

Hi Betty, I have sent you a message......Lilly

Hi again Heather, I have used the search on FamilySearch but a lot are not there, mabe free BMD is better, can you give me this address please. I have never used that either, does free BMD give you all the birth, marriages adn deaths then unlike FamilySearch. Betty

No Betty, It doesn't give all bmds yet. The bmds for England and Wales that are on Ancestry/1837 site are being transcribed by volunteers. The good part is that you can see the names from one page of the marriage register and possibly work out which groom married which bride. I probably haven't explained that very well. What dates and places are you looking for? Perhaps we can point you in the right direction. Heather

Hi Heather, Can't find much BMD on FamilySeach for Scotland. In fact I haven't been able to find any of my scottish relatives on Family Search. Betty

There is another way of searching the IGI for Scotland; it is Scots Origins (free) at http://www.scotsorigins*com/ (replace * with .) The database is the same but the search facility is different in some ways, can't remember exactly how. But could be worth a try, anyway. Kate.

Oh, and not forgetting Hugh Wallis's website which lists the IGI batch numbers for different counties, including in Scotland: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb*com/~hughwallis/ again, replace * with . Kate.

Hi Kate, Thanks I will give it a try, anything is better for for searching Scottish rellies than FamilySearch. Thanks for your help. Betty p.s. Kate Thanks for the other website address too Betty.

Sorry Betty, I didn't realise it was Scotland you needed. Heather

By the way... It's worth making a note of the batch number when you note IGI records. That means you can tell immediately where a record came from (in case you wonder about it later) - and you can get back to it to check. Once you have the batch number you can search with just parents' names and find siblings. In the same way, it's worth noting at least the piece number (poss the folio and page, too) with the main ref for census info. It makes that easier to find again, too. Christine

As for searching for BMD, the purpose of the IGI was for the Mormon church to gather together the names of lots of people whom they could retrospectively convert, so the death records are few and far between. There are a few birth records, but mostly it's Baptism records and Marriage records. Christine