Hi Anne
I think we may have talking at slightly cross purposes. St Catherines House is where all post 1837 BMD indexes used to be kept, and they are still often referred to by that name, even they though are now called GRO indexes and are kept in Stockport.
I believe you may be referring to a commercial search service called St Caths about which I know nothing. I don't see any point in paying someone to do work which I can do just as well myself.
If you asked them to find George Allen born in Barton in 1828/9, son of George and Jane, and they told you there is no such baptism then strictly speaking they are correct. If you asked them to find George Allen born in Barton in 1828/9 and they drew a blank I am less than impressed. The ones that they did find - can you find them by searching on the IGI and did they give you any more information than is on the IGI?
The IGI is the best research aid around for pre 1837 baptism and marriage records, but you need to be careful. There are two types of entry on the IGI, which can be identified in the Messages box of the Individual Record. One says "Extracted ...... record for locality listed in the record" which are controlled extracts taken from parish registers or bishops transcripts, which in my experience are extremely reliable. The other type of entry reads "Record submitted by a member of the LDS Church" and these vary in quality between fiction/wishful thinking to well researched. In other words Member submissions should NOT be relied on.
Ideally the IGI should used for what it is - an index, by checking the entry in the parish register, which can be done as I explained in an earlier post. The IGI contains only bare information - much more detail can usually be obtained from the full entry in the parish register.
The IGI is extremely good for Beds research as pre 1812 coverage is almost 100%. Bear in mind though that the IGI mainly covers baptisms and marriages, with very few burials appearing, so you need other research aids such as the NBI to assist with burials - again Beds is very well covered.
Hope this helps
Regards
David
