It is not my idea to turn the answer to IGI question into a religious discussion, except the IGI represents a record that is very important to those of the LDS faith. If you are not LDS and found your ancestors there, please do not get angry with me, just read through to the end and take what I'm saying for whatever it may be worth. It is offered as explanation, not as challenge to anyone's religious beliefs or defense of LDS beliefs. Many of the people on the IGI were not born Mormon--may not have been Mormon while alive. (If you note the dates in the baptism, endowment, sealing column--they are often many, many years after the individual's death.) Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus Christ set the example for us in being baptized by immersion, that it must be done by proper authority (hence going to John the Baptist). LDS believe that baptism is essential to enter the Kingdom of God, but that because not everybody has opportunity to hear the fulness of the gospel in this life & be baptized that God, being no respecter of persons, allows people to be baptized by proxy for others...hence baptism for the dead. (See Corinthians where the subject of baptism for the dead is raised...it isn't the question of the act of baptism for the dead being discussed, but the lack of belief in a literal resurrection.) LDS also believe that marriage and the family were meant to be eternal--hence the sealing of families into eternal units. LDS believe in the principle of free agency, that when people hear the fullness of the gospel on the other side they may accept it, or not, as they choose. If they accept it, they will need baptism by the proper authority. It is done on their behalf, by proxy in the temples. If they don't want it, even though it may have been done, they don't have to accept it in their behalf. Now, comes the question that many raise because they want their ancestors to be whatever they were when they were alive. IF the LDS Church IS true, then their work on behalf of deceased relatives in the temple is one of the greatest humanitarian efforts on the face of this earth because it makes the benefits of baptism and family sealings available to those who didn't have the chance while on the earth...and those individuals have the opportunity to accept that effort on their behalf--or say, "no thank you, I don't believe I will." IF the LDS Church is NOT true, then the time spent in the temples is just time spent in an activity that is meaningless in the eternities--no more important that someone spending hours watching television, reading, or any similar pasttime--but nevertheless, provides those who avail themselves of the IGI a wonderful resource to locating ancestors if they happen to find their people on it. . . and not important enough to get upset to find a Baptist, Catholic, Buddist, athiest, or whatever--ancestor on it that may have been baptized after his death by someone who wanted to share what (s)he believed with someone they loved. If it isn't the true church, it has no efficacy. Karen