Significance of IGI entries

[Nick Carver]

I have just encountered about six different entries for the same person (born 1789) in the International Genealogical Index run by the Mormons. This is not the first time I have come across a similar situation. Can anybody help me with an insight as to how the index is compiled? At first glance, one might assume that records are entered en bloc from any available source without any cross checking. Is this the case or could I draw any other conclusions from the data, such as there being somebody else researching the same ancestors?

[Darcy]

Hi Nick,

yes, quite often there are multiple entries. Somtimes I have noted that some entries may contain a little extra information such as a birth, or burial date, or a woman's surname if it is a marriage.

The further back you go the worse it seems to get with, as you say, around six identical entries.

I can't help you with the reason for it but it is a good idea to check them all for the extra info that might be there.

Aaron

[Mars Barr]

 

Hi,
Where the batch No is indicated, being either CO or MO this means the information has been extracted from the parish record, if you have say a child baptised, and want to know if any other children have been baptised to the same paren, simply put in the batch number, and you will find all the other children by going through the list.

If however, the message tells you that the info has been entered by a member of the LDS Church, the go to the Ancestor File, see if you can find the entry, then click on to the submitter (if this has been supplied) you will then see the name & address for the submitter, who will quite possibly be a descendant.

Mistakes can however be made, for instance, my grandfather has been entered as being born in Canada (by my cousin who is a Mormon) but when I eventually "found" my cousin, I could reveal to him that our grandfather had actually been born in England, I was in possesion of the birth certificate, however, the mistake still remains on the IGI! it is always wise to check on any information that has been entered by a member, by obtaining certificates if possible

[EmPers]

Information entered by members of the LDS church (rather than transcribed from CHurch records), is not checked at all. SOmetimes the information is reliable, in many cases it isn't, as for various reasons some Mormons like showing they are related to various people.

I found one case where the entries clearly hadn't even been given a second thought, as one couple had three children born within the space of 6 months!!

The other thing is that once something is on the IGI, it stays there, even if someone knows of a correction, it's left unchanged.

The best you can do is to use member submitted information as a guide to try and find more.

[Boongie Pam]

If you get multiple entries for one person - who is obviously identifiable as an individual, same dates etc, then it is likely that most of the entries are submitted by members.

I only ever look at the ones extracted from the parish records, and as others have said, only as a finding aid.  The original records can give you so much more, with an increased degree of certainty.

If I hit a brickwall I will look if anyone else is doing research on the family and check the submitted entries to see where they have gone from there.  I would then check the parish entries by batch for the time and place of the submitted info.

This is the best site for batch number information...
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm

I've seen instances of children born after the death of the mother - by 3 years!

I hadn't thought cryogenics was that old a science...

Nipping aside it is a wonderful tool and free!

Happy hunting,
Pam

[celia]

Yes a lot of the above is correct, unless the I.G.I has a batch number take the rest with a pinch of salt. I was only told that myself this year and i have been using it for 4 years. All Reference libraries have the I.G.I. so it's best to use those. there are no mistakes or very few on the I.G.I fiches I use them a lot. I can tell you that entries are not checked.I had reason to mail the L.D.S 3 years ago. I had found  much earlier. my G.G.grandfather's christening  in glasgow(born about 1822) and his parents. ( on the net)so i spent a lot of time trying to find  any info on him.using this date,18 months. I did after many tripp's find my richard mc Cloy.with wrong parent though.  I later found other children of my G.G.G.Grandparents. Including my richard born in 1810 So that entry was submitted and wrong.I asked for this to be corrected by the L.D.S but they said they cannot change the I.G.I. meaning the real one. I meant the submission, Unless i had proof i did, so it was corrected. not only did they correct it they must have gone through the I.G.I themselves (to prove me wrong maybe)and put the whole family together.So if you find info on your family in a submission and you know it's wrong get it put right. Then future researchers wont be driven up the wall Like me

[Little Nell]

I agree with most of the replies - definitely treat the member submitted entries with caution.  But, I disagree  about there being no mistakes (or very few) in the extracted records on the fiche: transcription errors still occur, we can all make mistakes.  I spent years looking for a family member in Portsea.  The name had been mistranscribed. When I went to view the film of the register I could see why: there was a dark line on the film and the transcriber and checker decided that the cross bar of the double t was actually part of the dark line and transcribed it as double l.

However, it is still one of the best and easily available guides we have to start us off on parish records.

Nell