** If I may simplify this discussion: 1. The IGI/Familysearch is purely an INDEX, compiled in the 1970s and is fairly complete for Church of Scotland registers held by Edinburgh at that time. 2. The OPRs are the actual baptismal & marriage banns registers of the Church of Scotland. There are many other registers for other church denominations - Roman Catholic; Episcopal Church of Scotland; Congregational church; Baptists, and so on, many of which are not indexed online. 3. Scotlandspeople has a newer index to the OPRS (and some other church registers), and it is not hampered by IGI "patron submissions" which are often little more than guesses. 4. Difficulties in finding children of a couple are mostly the variability of OPRs in spellings; periods when only the father was named; and occasions when families decided to have their child baptised in another denomination; or when baptism was refused because the minister regarded one or both parents as "unworthy". There are many more complications which are minor in their effect. Gordon.

The IGI is to be restructured later this year or early next year so that patron submissions and extracts will be separated. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gordon Johnson" <gordon@kinhelp.co.uk> To: <perthshire@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, April 25, 2010 4:56 PM Subject: [PERTHSHIRE] IGI v. OPRs > ** If I may simplify this discussion: > 1. The IGI/Familysearch is purely an INDEX, compiled in the 1970s and is > fairly complete for Church of Scotland registers held by Edinburgh at > that time. > 2. The OPRs are the actual baptismal & marriage banns registers of the > Church of Scotland. There are many other registers for other church > denominations - Roman Catholic; Episcopal Church of Scotland; > Congregational church; Baptists, and so on, many of which are not > indexed online. > 3. Scotlandspeople has a newer index to the OPRS (and some other church > registers), and it is not hampered by IGI "patron submissions" which are > often little more than guesses. > 4. Difficulties in finding children of a couple are mostly the > variability of OPRs in spellings; periods when only the father was > named; and occasions when families decided to have their child baptised > in another denomination; or when baptism was refused because the > minister regarded one or both parents as "unworthy". > There are many more complications which are minor in their effect. > Gordon. > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > PERTHSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message