Hi All Cindy has given me permission to post this on the Lists. FWIW some of you may get some tips that will be of assistance. The explanation of the 'no mother or father' was enlightening. Hope it leads to further discoveries for you all. Cheers Beryl O'Gorman Greensborough Victoria Australia List Admin ----- Original Message ----- From: <CWood91262@aol.com> To: <IRL-LIMERICK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 10:58 PM Subject: [LIMERICK] How to Use Familysearch.com > Hi, List: > > It appears that some of you are having trouble negotiating this site. I spend > a lot of time there and have developed some tricks so I'll pass those along. > > When the site opens up, click on the Search button and this will take you to > the All Resources page. It is on this page that you can enter just the last > name you are searching for. If you want to narrow it down to a country, this > is also possible (Ireland is the 6th I entry on the list). If you enter just > a last name, you may not enter any narrowing search parameters, such as > marriage, or christening, or a year range. It has to remain the "all" search > parameter. If you enter a full name, first and last, you can limit the > remaining search parameters. > > Any results you pull up in this section are in a semi order, tending to be > alphabetical by the location of the record it has found. So, any entries for > Catherine Keays in Co. Fermanagh are going to appear after the entries for > Catherine Keays found in Cashel and Emly entries, but before Catherine Keays > in Co. Limerick entries. > > When you pull up an entry on the results page, it may give you information, > such as Batch Number. When it gives you this batch number, note it. This is > especially important when you are working with a fairly common surname or if > you know your group is found in fairly concise areas of Ireland. Armed with > the batch number, you can move over to the IGI section, and enter just that > last name, the batch number and boom, up pops all the entries in that batch > with that surname. This is the ONLY way one can use the IGI search screen > with only the last name in the search parameters. > > If you are in the All Resources section and enter a last name only, you will > get all sorts of hits for this last name, often times double entries for the > same person. The entire list is broken down into other choices, such as > IGI-British Isles, SSDI, IGI-N. American, etc. You can click on those > hyperlinked versions and it will filter further, and give you all the entries > found in that specific site. Unfortunately, this is a limited number site, > 5000 hits max. If you enter a common surname, you won't work through the > entire list, and that is when the batch becomes important. O'Neill, for > instance is a far greater than 5000 hits name. > > That should enable some of you to play around with the site. Some other > search hints would be to not limit the spelling of the name, even if YOU know > the name was always spelled Keays in your family, some record maker might not > have known that and you could find your ggg grandmother's marriage entered > under Keyes. The other useful hint, and unfortunately, this tends to pertain > more to the families who had children christened in the C of I parishes, you > can search in the IGI under the parents only. To do that, go to the far > right sections of the page. Put in dad's first and last name, you can limit > it to mom's first name only. Enter the last name in the child's section, but > no first name. You can also limit the locations on this, but my > recommendation is to not get as fine as just the county, use the whole > country. The search engine will then give you all children in its database > born to couples with those names. > > One final trick to remember is an annoying bit of "helpfulness" someone at > the home of familysearch tried to come up with. When they located a marri age > record for a couple, you will also find a corresponding "christening" record > for these individuals. Unfortunately, the LDS people "made up" these > records, using an arbitrary age of 25 for the groom at his marriage, and an > arbitrary age of 21 for the bride. It made both christenings occur in the > same location as the marriage. You will know you have hit on a fabricated > christening record if there are no parents listed, no source listed, and no > corresponding film or batch number. Use these christening records with a > grain of salt. As an example, one will find a marriage record for a Benjamin > Keays and Sarah Hargrave in the Cork Diocese in 1809. One will also find > christening records for Ben and Sarah, again both ostensibly in the Cork > Diocese. Ben was christened in 1783, Sarah in 1788. No parents are listed. > Now I know Sarah was the daughter of Adam, and she was indeed likely to have > come from the Cork Diocese, in St. Annes Shandon, and that from all we've > found since in Limerick, where the couple lived, Sarah probably was 20 or so > at her marriage. Unfortunately, the info for Ben is entirely wrong. Ben was > from Abington, in Co. Limerick, not Cork, we know his parents, and in all > likelihood, he was closer to 35 at marriage than to 25. This bit of > helpfulness on the part of the LDS folks has thrown off a number of less > experienced searchers who think that because they've found an entry in the > LDS site it must be backed up by some sort of actual record, when in fact, it > has not been backed up by anything other than an active imagination. > > If you have any questions about navigating this site, email me and I can try > to answer them. > > Cindy > > ______________________________