The following is a copy of a letter published in the Warwickshire newsletter by one of it's subscribers. I have found much information at this site but I think Geoff's letter is informative and wisely helpful. I quote: I spent a few hours last night satisfying my curiosity about the IGI records. I have many photocopies of pages from the Chilvers Coton parish registers that I made when I was in Nuneaton, and I decided to see whether the LDS transcribers had managed to do a better job on the dark and ink-smudged parts than I. The result was surprising. These were mostly pages from 1650 to 1700, and I used the online IGI. Where a name was dark and smudged but still understandable, there was often no entry on the IGI. Where the handwriting was doubtful, but understandable because the same names appeared clearer in other parts, there was no entry OR a completely wrong name had been recorded. Then, I noticed that only about half of the names had been transcribed - mostly those which were so clear that there could be no doubt. The majority of the correct records were the ones which had a C or M batch number - which I believe were mostly transcribed from the Bishop's Transcripts. Those without the C or M prefix were only vaguely reliable. My conclusion is that whoever did the transcribing of those particular records was rather slipshod and in a hurry and had no really clear idea of old handwriting. I found 'c' recorded as 'r' and 'B'; '7' as '1' or '9'; 'e' as 'o', and so on. I also believe that the transcribers were in Salt Lake and worked from photographs of registers. They would usually have no local knowledge and were perhaps not even familiar enough with English names to question their own interpretation. One interesting entry, which was faded but still legible with a knowledge of the district and the names that occurred frequently was the marriage between William Coxe and Dorothy Brighton on September 16th 1654 at ARBURY, the estate of the Newdigate family in the parish of Chilvers Coton.. There were two entries on the IGI for this marriage: William Coxe to GARTRYE (no attempt to decipher the surname) in FEBRUARY 1654 in Nuneaton. The faint but legible September has been ignored and Arbury is interpreted as February. The other IGI entry is for William Coxe and Dorothie BEETON, 18th September 1654 (wrong date) in Nuneaton (a different place at that time, which would even cause a researcher to waste a lot of time searching Nuneaton records). These are both entries with the 'M' prefix for the batch number. This was, I would point out again, Chilvers Coton. I have no idea about other districts. Perhaps they are better. I have the feeling that my Richard and Hannah White may still be lurking in Chilvers Coton but are hiding in the dark pages. The moral is that which genealogists have said for a long time: use the IGI as a guide only, but then check the originals, perhaps through a local FHS which has often transcribed them. Geoff in Helsinki