Steve’s quick
guide to the
www.familysearch.org
web site
The opening screen from the FamilySearch web site showing the opening screen view – the Search For Ancestors window
The Browse Categories lists are the other main area found on this site, the lists are always growing and well worth closer inspection
At the bottom of this page is a search engine that enables you to search in more detail the various links
Finding a record on the I.G.I.
From the Search for Ancestors window click on the Custom Search tab.
This will open another window (frame), here click on the IGI text link.
This will open another window that contains the main search page for the IGI.
Enter the details of the person you wish to find. In the example I have used my full name Steven Jacques. You must have both a first and last name at this stage.
Then select the region you wish to search. There are various regions from America to Finland; we shall stay with the British Isles in this example.
Then select the Country within that region. You may choose to select All Countries or just one, such as England etc. If you choose a specific country then another list to the right of this opens up and allows you to select the County in that country if it is known. Again you can opt for All Counties if you wish.
For this example we used Steve Jacques : British Isles : England : All Counties. When you are sure that you have all these items selected click on the Search Button.
This will return a list of all those names on the IGI that match the options you have selected. Be prepared to find no records and also be prepared to find many hundreds. In the example we have a return of 21 matches to our search. Notice that only record number 4 matches the exact spelling of the name we entered, there are many that have different spellings of the surname and first name. We could have stopped this by switching on the * Use exact spelling option to the left of the Search Button. You must remember though that many mistakes were made during the various transcription stages of the IGI, therefore, it is best not to use the exact spelling option in the beginning.
Clicking on the name link opens another window showing the full record for that name. It will usually give you both parents’ names as well as the most important factor the BATCH NUMBER. This number refers to the actual church and is specific to it. Therefore, we can, using this number in our search, look at the records for that church only. We can, by removing the first name, check to see the total records of that surname in the church for the dates given.
To carry out this more detailed search click on the Return to search results link and click on [refine search] at the top of the page.
This will return you to the custom search page.
Delete the first name and add the Batch Number in the box provided for it and click on Search button again.
This time the records shown will only match those found for persons with the surname you have used and found at the church whose Batch number you have input into the box.
In this case it only returns two records
Checking these will show that they are in fact from different families.
Finding
children from of the same parents
Return to the refine search page and add the names of the parents in the appropriate boxes. If there are any other children to these parents they will also show when the Search button is clicked.
You can also adjust the Batch number by changing the last number on it to a higher or lower number.
This may also bring results by allowing a different year grouping to show for that church.
Also try changing the first capital letter to an M for marriages.
Other letters of the alphabet also are used such as P, J, A and K, they must all be written in upper case.
How to find a
Batch Number before you start searching
Batch numbers can be found on the familysearch site by clicking on the Custom Search button and then clicking on the
This will bring up a series of windows that take you through a search routine for individual churches and parishes as follows
Opening window in Family History Library CatalogTM
Click on the Place Search button
This will open a search window as below
In this example I have used the Town of Wellington in Shropshire. At this stage I do not need to input the County as the next window will allow us to choose the correct area for the Wellington we want as below
Clicking on the correct text link opens a window showing the records and files held by the LDS library on that area as below
The important link we are looking for is the Church records - indexes
This is the section that will show any Batch numbers that are available for that area. Clicking on that text link opens another window
Here some of the available records for Wellington are listed with text links.
The Parish records are where we shall find the Batch number and so clicking on this will show exactly what is available.
The Batch number is found in the Notes section and is not yet ready to be used in the familysearch.org site. It has to have some changes made to it as follows.
The Batch Number found reads C-3752-3
Firstly remove the first dash and replace it with a zero. (Make sure it is a Zero 0 and not a capital O.)
It should now read
C03752-3
Lastly remove the last dash so that you end up with a Batch number that consist of a capital letter and six numbers with no dashes.
It should now read C037523
This is the Batch Number for Christ Church in Wellington, Shropshire.
Remember that you can change the last number to find different year ranges and also that you can try changing the first capital letter to an M for marriages.
Sometimes using the letters A or P or J also works.
Click here to open the FamilySearch web
site