I thought that I would stick an oar in the water and say a few words in defense of the IGI. I think that the problem that many people have with it is that they just don't understand what it is and what it can and, conversely, cannot do for you. The IGI is really just what it names implies: an index...an huge index to a myriad number of sources. The usefulness of the information in the IGI rest soley on the quality of those sources. Once you have located a piece of information that interests you in the IGI, you still have to track it to the source of the information. Some of those sources will be next to useless to you. Some of them may be a treasure trove. To understand the IGI, you have to know what the kinds of sources were that were used to compile it, wheter it was from an old FGS submitted for Temple work, a name-extraction program from old South American church records, or marriages from an traveling missionaries diaries. What the IGI can't do for you is replace the research in those original records. It can't stand on its own as a means to build an genealogy. (To ask it to do so would be like using a census index entry to represent the listing on the original census page.) What it can do for you is lead you to some original sources or to other researchers. It can't replace those sources. The long and short...Check out the batch numbers and find out what the source was! Renee L. Dauven

Renee, Thank you for the enlightening information about the IGI. All we need now is an explanation of how to de-code the source information and how to access such sources short of a trip to Salt Lake City. I know, I know... visit the local LDS Family History Center and order the info on microfilm from them. If any one has other suggestions, I'm willing to listen. Honestly, I don't mind the IGI nearly as much as I hate the idea that the FamilySearch.org and Ancestry.com (both organizations we "should" be able to trust for accurate info) freely publish on-line information they have not troubled to check to see if it was documented or not. Family Tree Maker does the same thing. The last line of defense stands with each one of us to make sure what we cite as truth we have docuemented and if it isn't documented to make darn sure we make it known up front. Suggestions on digging out those sources, anyone??? Charlene