Genealogy Chat

What Maz says is absolutely right. Watch out for mis-spellings and wrong translations. I couldn't understand why my grandfather didn't show up, so started looking at possible mis-transcriptions. I found him! He had been transcribed as "Henry Alfred Gardaldi Truse" - his name was actually "Henry Alfred Garibaldi Frasi" !! No wonder I had trouble finding him!

Sometimes the county of birth is not entered on the census transcription. If you use that as a search term it will not find the person (although he is there).

Hi I have found this so i search the census first and then do a second all sources search Linda P

Hi Angela Try this website for a list of the batch numbers. http://freepages(.)genealogy.rootsweb(.)com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm Sam x

Thanks a lot everyone for the help. I'm about to give it another try in a minute. I was so disappointed because i thought I was heading for the Holy Grail! That'll teach me.

Hi Angela, Unfortuntely you cannot be confident that FamilySearch is accurate. Like all secondary (not original) records there are mistakes, mis-transcriptions and also (on the IGI) pure fantasy in some cases. The golden rule is to use the information that you get from FamilySearch and similar sources as a 'pencil-in' guide until you can check the original records - either GRO registers or parish records. The census details should not be fantasy - but are full of mis-spellings, which can explain why some rellies are so elusive. Sorry, don't mean to be negative, just feel you should know to be cautious! Maz. XX

Angela if you type in 'IGI batch numbers england' in your search bar you will get some sites come up, click on the one that says counties in england and you will have all the igi batch numbers. Gen

On the IGI enter the search details and press ok. next you will hopefully have a list of names that are either exact or similar. click on the one you feel is the right person and it will give you their details of the event concerned. at the bottom of this page after all the disclaimer and bunf you will see the batch numbers and FHL (Family History Library) film numbers. these are in blue and can be clicked on to search for names just related to that batch or film

I've just been reading the thread on the IGI and batch numbers so I thought I'd give it a go. I typed in my g grandmother's details on all resources and she didn't appear, just one match on the 1881 census which wasn't her and a load of American web sites. This was a puzzle because I knew she was on the 1881. Anyway, I put in exactly the same details on the census page and up she popped! The point being how confident can I be that Family Search is accurate. Has anyone else had the same experience? Or am I missing something......... I've just tried again with another relative but I'm not sure where I would find the batch number.........I've tried both the census and the IGI and can't find any reference to a batch number.