Submitted IGI how reliable..?

[selwynfroggitt]

Apart from those from Combe Street Independent all my IGI extracts for Lyme Regis  are submitted... and try as I may I can not get the baptisms relationships to agree with the census relationships...
The baptisms have dates and parents so I have accepted that they are from original sources.. where else could they come from

[aghadowey]

Family Bible perhaps?

[nanny jan]

Hi,

If you want to double check, the Dorset FHS have transcribed Lyme Regis Parish Registers and offer a look-up service.

Nanny Jan

[Redroger]

My experience with submissions leads to the short answer: Not very!

[I've left]

Try looking at what other records are contained within the batch. If there are lots then this suggests someone has made an effort to add to the IGI parish records not previously covered.

Bryan

[selwynfroggitt]

Thank you for your replies..I have a Samuel Wood born 1803 and a Samuel Wood born 1804..one was a sailor and the other a carpenter... The sailor and his sister Margaret both died in Guernsey and the Guernsey death certs name the parents of the deceased which in both these deaths were Samuel Wood and Mary Cox.
The IGI submissions show Samuel Wood and Mary Cox had other children including Susan  Wood and Sarah Wood both baptised on the same day in 1797...
However the 1841 and 1851 census shows that Susan Wood is unmarried and living with her brother Samuel Wood a carpenter..
It would seem that the IGI and the death certs don't agree...
A possible explanation is that there was another Susan Wood born around the same time who is the sister of the carpenter and her birth and baptism have not been recorded.

Complicated

[Ermintrude46]

Could Samuel have been a ship's carpenter?  My Jones were shipwrights/ship's carpenters and the Extraordinary accounts for the Deptford shipyard held at Kew often list several of the ship's carpenters as at sea in the monthly accounts.
Ermy

[suelaw1954]

As previous people have said the quality is variable. I've found some very useful (worthwhile chasing a copy of the PR) while others are rubbish.
The tests I apply are:
Is the name reasonably accurate? (e.g. submissions using a woman's married name are from things like censuses)
Is the date complete? ("Abt year" implies derivation from census or death)
Is the parish fully entered with reasonable spelling & correct county?

These seem to indicate transcription from a reasonable source (parish register or good transcription)

Sue

[Redroger]

Seem reasonable criteria Sue, I would add in attempt to contact the submitter, some of these I have found helpful, others to be charitable not quite so helpful.