Definition of IGI & PAF entries on LDS site

[josey]

Hello all - I am not sure whether this is the right board but here goes!! Any help gratefully received.

[1] What is the definition of people on the IGI list? Is it people who have been 'sealed' in a temple [regardless of faith or denomination]? Or does it mean someone else is researching your line? Or does it mean that some volunteer just happens to have put certain records from film to website? Am I right in thinking the PAF is uploaded .gedcoms?

[2] My grandmother born 1880 & one sister born 1876 are listed on the IGI but not any of the other siblings; they were all RCs born in the same Irish townland. The 1876 sister is one who, family story has it, emigrated to Canada after leaving a philandering husband. No one alive here now knows what happened to her. So if there is someone in LDS who is researching her, is there anyway one can find out who uploaded the details? Incidentally I have left messages on various boards about this sister with no success - I do not know her married name.

Questions, questions. Thanks in advance for any answers.

Josey

[Little Nell]

This is not easy to give a short answer 

The LDS church produced this index as a result of their beliefs.  As I understand it, they submit records so that their ancestors can be baptised or accepted into their church even though they have long since died.  This is done by:
 
1. submitting records extracted from the parish registers - by filming, transcribing and indexing the original entries;

2. submitting entires from their own research

The extracted entries are much more reliable since they come from the original registers themselves.  However, there are still transcription errors and some countries or counties are covered better than others.  The submitted entries are sometimes only "guesstimates."  Ideally all entries should be checked.  Use the IGI as guide.

PAF = Personal Ancestral File which is a genealogy programme, free to download from LDS site.

Ancestral File is a large database of pedigrees maintained by the Genealogical Society of Utah (closely connected to the LDS church) and included on the IGI.

Sometimes you can find out who submitted the details but if it was decades ago, it is not always helpful.

Nell

[josey]

Thanks for that, Little Nell.

Yes, I am confusing PAF with Ancestral File!!! Whoops.

Do you think it is the case that if the entry is an extracted one then that means my grandmother & her sister are possibly common ancestors of an LDS member doing research for baptism? Or that just part of a parish register has been transcribed?

Josey

[Joyful]

If the entry is extracted it means it is part of a parish register that has been transcribed.

Joy

[Guy Etchells]

The IGI (International Genealogical Index previously called The Computer File Index) is simply an index of the temple ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Temple ordinances - Baptism, Endowment & Sealing.
Cheers
Guy

[silvery]

Someone will correct me here if I am wrong, but I believe the Catholic church is not happy to allow the LDS to have access to its records.  So the couple you found may not be yours.

The reason might lie in the fact that the LDS collect this information to baptise people, posthumously, into their faith.  Not all religions are happy with this.

It's a positive boon for genealogists, though.

[Little Nell]

You can usually tell from the batch number if the entry is part of the parish record extraction programme (where all entries between certain dates have been transcribed, submitted and indexed on to the IGI).

Baptisms usually have a six figure number preceeded by P or C.  If only male entries were extracted then the preceeding letter is J.  For female entries extracted at one time, the preceeding letter is K.

Marriages are preceeded by M.

You find batches beginning E and these can be mixed baptisms and marriages.

All numeric batch numbers are submitted entries and therefore less reliable.  They may have been submitted by an relative of the person whose record you are viewing: equally they may just have submitted all the entries for a certain surname.

Other submitted entries begin with the letter A followed by some numbers.

There are some batches which begin I and may relate to more than one parish is a city or town.

Nell

[aghadowey]

Many but not all Irish births 1864-1882 are in IGI. The details were taken from civil records not church records.

[Guy Etchells]

snip
Do you think it is the case that if the entry is an extracted one then that means my grandmother & her sister are possibly common ancestors of an LDS member doing research for baptism? Or that just part of a parish register has been transcribed?

Josey

Extracted entries are entries that have been extracted from earlier records (parish registers, bishop's transcripts, statewide vital records, Gibsons marriage transcripts, LDS temple sealing record, LDS Church membership record etc. etc. which have then been submitted for at least one temple ordinance.

There may be a connection to a Church member or there may not, the significant part being the records were part of a mass extraction of the records of a particular source.
Cheers
Guy