IGI

[banora]

Hi,  I'm not sure if I'm doing things wrong looking up the IGI but I can never find anything on anyone that I need to look up but when I pose a question to your kind folk at rootschat (in beginners) I nearly always get a reply that "found this on the IGI" and mostly is what I'm looking for, do they have more access than us mere learners? maybe I have the wrong website?

Barb

[Little Nell]

This is the URL of the site:

http://www.familysearch.org/

It has a number of tabs along the top, click on "Search" to take you to the search screen.

Down the left hand side are options for narrowing your search from "All Resources" to just the IGI or the census.

I think we are all learners - some people are just more adept at thinking of possible searches.    Keep plugging away, Barb!

Nell

[kerryb]

Barb

Please don't feel that you are alone, you're not!  I occasionally request a search on rootchat and get the same answer even though I know I have checked the IGI. 

Sometimes it is because someone has found my answer though the Hugh Wallis site http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/ which is well worth trying if you don't know about it.

Sometimes it's just because as Nell says some are just more adept at thinking of possible searches.

I also don't know how often the IGI is updated, that is could be a possible answer??

Kerry 

[Tati]

Hi all 

Also, it often pays to do broad searches, only entering name/surname/country and then maybe refine the search if you get too many results

Be careful especially with the years. If you enter say 1827 without selecting +/- x years, it won't show anything dated 1826 or 1828!
 

[Ruskie]

Hi Barb,you are not alone.

It took me a while to get the hang of it, and I'm still learning! It's actually quite a versatile site and there are many ways you can search.

To start, if you click on Nell's link above, you will be taken to the site.
Then along the top of the page are some tabs, click on the second tab along which says SEARCH.
You will be taken to a new page.
Then look at the list on the left. The IGI is the fourth down.
Click on it.
You will be taken to a new page.
To search you can enter the person's full name, or just a surname or first name. You can enter a date, plus or minus a number of years as Tati explained. You should probably at least select the region and country from the pull down list, and the county if you know it.
As I said it's quite versatile, as you can search as broad as the whole country for just the surname, or you can narrow your search down to a particular year and place.
If you know the names of parents you can enter the father's first name and surname, and just the mother's first name, select christening, from the EVENTS box and you may find your ancestors siblings.
I hope you'll be able to follow these instructions and good luck with your searches.

[Comosus]

When searching for baptisms I always use +/- 5 years to hopefully grab everything.  When searching for marriages, if I have their date of birth, I add 26 years on and search +/- 10 years.  If I don't have their birth then I take 5 years off the date of the first child and then choose +/- 5 years.  Also, don't give up hope if the place that you expected didn't crop up - I use google maps and search for any parishes I don't recognise.  You may find there's one in a nearby village!

Andrew

[banora]

Many thanks to all of you who replied (COMOSUS, RUSKIE, TATI, KERRY B, & NELL) all suggestions duly noted, I was starting to get embarrassed when I could'nt find what I was looking for and someone would be able to give me information then when I went back to check it for myself I still could'nt find what they did.  Shall follow carefully all the suggestions given and once again many thanks

Barb

[kooky]

The IGI is only useful for information before 1881 or so. There are some later entries, but then it is better to pursue  Civil Registration or Censuses.
 The IGI is a good tool if you want to look at early C19th and earlier.

[banora]

Thank you Kooky.

Barb