Dear All: The IGI parish database has now been extended to the USA as well as UK and Europe "So whats the big deal"? As many of you know and can correct my mis statements below :-) The IGI from the LDS has several components: A: The microfilm of the parish vital records took many hours to convert to digital format. There are of course still errors. There are also the normal errors from the basic data at the parish. These raw data errors on birth, baptisms, marriages, deaths etc are compounded by trying to interpret the handwriting of the local person and in the case of church records, the local priest or pastor. The conversion to digital format was then undertaken and so some more errors were introduced, however, the input was carefully reviewed and the translation from the handwriting was checked and double checked. So it's "pretty good". So the ability to quickly search these records in the parish provides a decent chance of finding a ancestor and the high quality of those records is valuable to all of us! Hugh has compiled those records into a database by Parish that allows searching all the surnames on all the particular film in that entire Parish. B: A second source of the IGI records was the submission by many people who submitted records. These records had some errors of fact and handwriting. Hugh has not included those as yet. Many people were becoming skeptics of the IGI due to the mixture of Class A and Class B records. In my view, while errors exist in all vital records, the Class A source should always be at least checked. The overall picture is one of a valuable source of records ( IGI) that are now available in a database that allows faster and more searching for records of the Class A. While people often moved, most did not move far. So a combination of searching a local parish and then moving to other nearbye local parish by using a parish map should reveal family connections. Then combine that with a census search and some brick walls may reveal some clues. So the original database is here and hope some of those hidden ancestors are found :-). Best Regards John A Hansen BTW: The original and complete database from the LDS is at www.familysearch.org. This database is organized by surname. There is also several other databases that provides lists of the films by parish and other books etc that are available. New records and information is constantly being added so check back often. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis >From Hugh Wallis: <My first lot of North American numbers are up on the site - you can <get to them from the same page as before - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~hughwallis/ - there will be more to come if folks can tell me what ranges to look <in!! Please pass the word around All the very best Hugh Wallis Ontario, Canada Formerly of Surrey, UK>>