FamilySearch
– A free resource.
As many of
you may know FamilySearch is a web site developed and maintained by the Latter
Day Saints.
Back in the
early days of genealogy the LDS started filming parish registers, mainly in
England.
They then started transcribing these films and transferring them onto
microfiche, the IGI,[1]
as an index. Anybody could go to one of their Family History rooms and look at
the microfiche. If you found any items of interest, you could then order the
microfilm of the parish register. It would take a few weeks for the film to
arrive, but you then had two weeks to view the film. Looking through the film
you could often find other family members. Unfortunately, the film service
ceased in September 2017. Also, the LDS stopped transcribing the parish
registers many years ago and they still had only transcribed about a third of
the films. So, the parish you are interested in may have been filmed but not
transcribed!
When they
started the web site, they first transferred all the entries from the IGI
microfiche. Even though this was only an index, you could still find family
groups.
With the
current web site, it now has three areas for looking up people.
·
FamilySearch.org
is the main page and doorway to the site. Any search from the main page includes
in the results many record collections and English census entries. The census
entries are only for the name searched for and does not include the rest of the
household. If you want to view the rest of the household the link will take you
to Find My Past, where you must pay to view. If you scroll down the search
results page, on the left you will see
Clicking on collections will take you to a page that shows the
collections that have been included in the results. You can filter these
results, click on Learn more to find out how.
· Another
part of FamilySearch is Family Tree. This is open to anyone, you will need to
register for a free account.
This” tree” can be edited by anyone, so take any
information that you find as a pointer only. Many people link their family to
the wrong people, they often have no idea of English counties and just select
someone with the same name. They add children that are their supposed father’s
cousins. They add extra marriages with children. These a just a few of the
errors I have come across in my own tree. If you do find someone from your own
tree and find incorrect information, you can change it but be prepared for
someone else to come along and change it back. You can always contact the other
contributor via the site email service.
After clicking on Family Tree, you will get this screen
Fill in as much as you can then click find. You will get a results
screen.
Obviously, in this example the first result is the one I want. Clicking
on his name you will be given the choice to view tree or person. Select person for
now.
This is the screen where you can edit any information. There is more
information below what is shown here. At the top of the screen you will see
View Tree and Watch. If you want to keep an eye on any that you change, click
watch and you will be notified if anyone changes anything. (Through the site
email system). Clicking on view tree will take you to a pedigree tree view.
Just click on any name and select person to go to their details page and
to edit.
Play around with it, you can’t break anything. It’s only if you
deliberately change anything on the person page that adjusts any information on
that person.
It is up to you whether you add your family or not.
·
The
third part of the site you need to access under another URL.
You can probably find it from the main page, but I just use this URL.
This is the original IGI. The LDS did film other records worldwide, not
just England. So, it is always worth checking for other countries.
Fill out the search screen with as much as you can or want from the
search.
In the search results screen you will always get two tabs, Community
Contributed IGI and Community Indexed IGI.
If you untick the Community Indexed IGI it will remove the Community
Submitted IGI leaving you with one screen and no tabs.
The Community Indexed IGI, this is the one transferred from the
microfiche.
On the search results screen, click on the person’s name to expand the
information.
To get this
Make a note of the film number 1469266
Go back to the search results page. On the left-hand side of
the page is your original search parameters. Leave the surname and remove
everything else. Then add the film number.
| Search | |
Search results with surname
The Community Contributed IGI is information from LDS members and usually
does not show any sources of where they found this information. Like Family
Tree use these as pointers only. Clicking on a name here will take you to a
pedigree view, which may have more family attached.
If you like the look of an entry on the CCI pages, I suggest you use a
Family Group Sheet (see Files on our page to download a copy) and fill it out
in pencil, or if using it directly on the computer (it’s a word document)
change your font colour to grey. Then research other sources for the
information given and just highlight and change the font colour to black or go
over in pen any information you confirm. This way you will be able to keep
track of what you have found and what you still need to find. Of course,
remembering to note the source(s) of where you found the information. Remember
to use one family group sheet per couple.
Once you have confirmed the information you can add it to your family
tree program or online tree.
There is much more to the FamilySearch
web site.
Use the catalogue to see what they
have available on places, towns and cities.
Clicking on books will take you to a
list of repositories where you may find biographies or history of places etc.
Click on Wiki to take you to a search
screen – has inbuilt How to use Wiki.
Scroll down towards the bottom of the
page you will find all the charts/forms you can download.
Finally, if you have some spare time,
you can volunteer to transcribe some records. Who knows, you just may end up
with the parish that you were looking for.
I suggest you take an afternoon or
evening and take the time to explore the web site.
No comments:
Post a Comment