-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [KENT-ENG] Use IGI with great care Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 09:17:09 +0100 EVELYN WALLACE wrote: > I have volunteered for quite a few years at a large LDS Family > History Center. I have learned that there are great many flaws in > the IGI and, even worse, in Ancestral File. Ancestral Files can be wonderful works of fiction but can also be completely accurate. The one thing I would point out is that Ancestral Files are NOT always the work of the submitter so contacting that person won't always be useful in identifying the sources of information simply because the submitter won't know where the original researcher found the data. > I suggest researchers use this website www.familysearch.org, not > only for the great catalog but also for *Guidance*. Agreed. When I first started using the IGI is was an excellent resource but over the decades more and more patron submissions have been included which can range from complete accuracy to pure fantasy. > However, unless the batch number which is given to an entry in IGI > has a letter attached to it, such as capital C or capital M--or > similar--the information is probably highly unreliable. > C=christening; M=marriage; W=will. You will not find Deaths > listed. There ARE deaths listed but not very many. I've come across a few. Extractions are generally regarded as being accurate but even these can go astray at times for one reason or another: bad handwriting in the original register, misreading lines (eg name from line 10 of the register "matched" with data from line 11 which is easy done). There are two other letters I've found used for batch numbers: 'P' and 'I'. > I suggest the submitter try to find whether any parish records are > on the internet for her parish. If not, it may well pay to ask the > county record office for Kent [which one for Easterling?] to do > some research for her. The main record office is in Maidstone (IIRC) but there is a local studies library in Rochester and no doubt in other places as well. > > I have not had the county record office [I believe there are > two--am I right?] in Kent do research for me, but I have used such > offices in Bedfordshire and in Suffolk, and have been most pleased > with the results. When one doesn't live near UK, this is a most > satisfactory method for doing English family history, I have found. There's more and more becoming available online now through such resources as CityArk, Ancestry (some Kent parishes are included in the London Parishes section), FreeREG as well as record offices themselves. > And learn to use google.com Do place searches, name searches, > etc. I agree, search engines can produce surprising results from unexpected sources. I'd also suggest not limiting use of a search engine to just Google. There are others and they can produced hits Google doesn't. -- Charani (UK) OPC for Walton, Greinton and Clutton, SOM Asst OPC for Ashcott and Shapwick, SOM http://wsom-opc.org.uk