ONE of the fundamental building blocks for anyone searching their pedigree is the International Genealogical Index, or the IGI.
The IGI is a finding tool for a computer file that lists several hundred million names of deceased persons from throughout the world.
It also lists some vital information, such as a birth or marriage date and place.
Many names in the index come from transcriptions of vital records from the early 1500s to 1885. Others have been submitted by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormons.
The IGI is available on the Internet, on compact disc (CD), and on microfiche.
Copies of the IGI may be viewed at any LDS Family History Centre throughout the world, or any of the established genealogy societies, as well as most capital city municipal libraries.
It is primarily an index to Mormon temple work for individuals, which explains why there are often multiple entries for the same person.
LDS Church members have often submitted names for temple work to be done without having first found out whether it has been done before.
There are various reasons why this has been very difficult to do in the past.
There seems to be a general recognition that there are two main kinds of entries in the IGI, those submitted by church members (often called patrons) and those extracted directly from original records.
Family historians and other researchers tend to trust the latter entries, and it is relatively easy to check out the original source. If using the IGI on microfiche, these extracted entries usually have a batch number beginning with C or M or occasionally another letter, but some begin with numbers.
The CD-ROM edition gives pretty complete information for each entry. But if you’re using the IGI on fiche there is no substitute for reading detailed instructional material about this.
For anyone with an Internet connection, the IGI can be found on-line at this address: www.familysearch.org. It's all free.
Professional genealogist, local historian, broadcaster, editor and author, Peter N. Collins, founded Garrison Communications Family History Research Services in 1995. He whet his genealogy appetite with the launch of the Alexander Henderson Award-winning book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: A History of the Maudsley Family, in 1988. Offering commissioned family history and archival research services, Peter serves an Australian and international clientele who typically have ancestral links with Queensland. Garrison Communications stocks state-of-the-art genealogy research software and other information technology equipment (including the ScanPro 2000).
