I didn't realize I belonged to so many mail lists until I tried to
remember them all. By now it is old news to most genealogy seekers that
the LDS Church has a TEST site up and running at
www.familysearch.org
I've read so many comments from people on these lists, and I just have
to try to help everyone understand. First off it is TEST site. They
are still adding things and trying to work it out. Please be patient
when it is busy. Please understand when certain regions of the world
are not included. Just plain be patient!!!!! Most of us have no
comprehension of how much information the LDS Church has gathered on the
genealogy front. They don't have to share it with us, BUT they wanted
to do it. Maybe we should be more greatful and a whole lot less
critical. I keep reading messages about there being errors. Excuse me,
but since when did every bit of information someone tried to help you
find turn out to be perfectly accurate? I ALWAYS take what someone
supplies and try to verify it unless they state an irrefutable source.
Then I still watch carefully for typographical errors in transmitting
the data. This is a hobby that demands double and triple checking and
lots of hard work, but it sure is fun. It is especially fun when that
long lost name or place or date suddenly turns up in the least likely
place.
Let me try to help you understand what the LDS Church is supplying.
They have a program on the computers at their Family History Libraries
called Ancestral File. I don't know exactly when it started, but I
believe it was in the early 1980's. They asked initially members of
their church, and then they expanded it to anyone who was interested, to
submit their genealogy pedigrees with as much information as possible on
birth, marriage, death, parents. At the outset they said they (the
Church) would not be verifying the information. They were offering
their services to collect data so people could access it and perhaps
locate other people working on the same lines so they didn't have to
duplicate their efforts. Thus if someone was in Mississippi and someone
else was in Belgium trying to trace the same family, and if they both
submitted their information to the Ancestral File, they could then
contact each other and share sources and information and perhaps split
up the research so one was checking in one area, and the other person
could check in another area. Until the information submitted to the
Ancestral File is verified by others who access it, there is no
guarantee it is correct, but at least it is a place to start. They
receive thousands and thousands of additional names all the time, and it
takes a lot of work to incorporate it into the File. They try to update
the AF as often as they can, but sometimes it is 1-2 years. While there
are some people working at the main Family History Library in Salt Lake
City who are paid employees and others are paid by the Church to travel
world wide making microfilms and obtaining books and other records, the
VAST MAJORITY of those involved in genealogy in the LDS Church are
amateurs and volunteers. They cannot and will not be able to go in and
change every single entry that has an error.
The other source being made available is their IGI or International
Genealogical Index. The LDS Church arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in
1847. Almost immediately the members of the Church were encouraged to
gather records of their ancestors and current families and make the
information available to the Church. Up until 1970 the individual
submissions were typed BY VOLUNTEERS on index cards and filed in a
section called the Temple Index Bureau. After 1970 most of the
submissions were entered into the computerized IGI. The members were
asked and are still asked to be as accurate as possible. I, for one, am
not perfect. I have checked every available source I could on some of
my family and thought it was right, only to finally find an official
document, such as a birth certificate, marriage license, etc., that
showed I had a misspelled name or incorrect date all along. This
happens on the IGI, too. However, everyone tries to be accurate.
Because there are literally MILLIONS of entries, and because most of the
people involved are volunteers, they cannot go back and change every one
of the mistakes that people catch. That is what we have to do in our
own records and then make a note of what is verified and what is not.
The LDS Church also has an extraction program where they go around the
world and make microfilms of official parish records, land records,
civil records, family histories, biographical books, etc. and then
VOLUNTEERS read every entry of the parish record and extract the births
and marriages one by one, transfer them to a card, then someone else
comes along and does it again to see if they read it the same way, and
then another volunteer enters it on to a computer program, and another
comes along and enters it again to see if it matches. Then these
entries are also added to the IGI increasing the huge base of
information available to EVERYONE who has an interest. I am greatful
for the tremendous service they have made. My wife's family comes from
Berlin. There are about 19 parishes in that city alone, and there was
no rule that you had to have all your children baptized in the parish
you physically lived in, and there are 100's and 100's of microfilms for
Berlin alone. As each update of the IGI comes out we have tried to find
missing names and occasionally we succeed because someone took the time
to volunteer to do the extraction and found the baptism or marriage we
needed in one of those 19 parishes rather than us trying to read all
those films. (They don't extract the deaths, just births and
marriages). An extension of the extraction program has been done in
recent years where thousands and thousands of volunteers in the LDS
Church have been entering the Temple Index Bureau data from the index
cards onto the computer to appear in the IGI again making more and more
information available to us all.
On one of the mail lists someone complained because they saw an entry
that just said someone was "of" a place and had only an approximate year
of birth. Many of those types of entries are from the early days when
the Church put things on index cards. The early members of the Church
listed their ancestors as best as they knew them. Many did not have
records with them, so they had to do it from memory. Sometimes they
knew where an ancestor lived, but not necessarily where they were born,
so they just said they were "of Boston" or "of Paris" or "of
Barcelona",
etc., etc.
My ancestors 1st submitted one early ancestor as Mrs. Jack Griggs,
because that is all they knew. Then someone else remembered her name
was Ann, so it was turned in again as Mrs. Ann Griggs. Finally someone
found a record showing she was Ann Hills, so it was done again. They
were from Dover, Kent, England, so the cards usually said "of Dover".
That is what the living descendants at the time remembered. Only after
parish records became available did we find out Ann HILLS was actually
born in Sandwich, Kent, England, on 10 Dec 1784 and christened in St.
Clement's in Sandwich on 3 Jan 1785. But someone who thought they were
being thorough turned it in with 3 Jan 1785 as the birth date, when it
was actually the christening date. So this ancestor is on the IGI 5 or
more times with varying amounts of information. Now that the parish
records are on microfilm I can find her exact name, her exact birth date
and place, her exact christening, the correct date and place of her
marriage, etc. Although the early listings put in by my ancestors were
incomplete and even wrong, at least I knew where to start looking thanks
to their efforts.
Give the new program a chance. If you get one new piece of information,
you have been helped. Sure there may be errors. That is the fun
part--you get to check it out. We all need to complain less and be more
appreciative for the work others have done to help. I thank each and
every one of the people on all these mail lists who have helped me dig a
little deeper into my heritage.
I hope this will help everyone understand a little better what is being
made available on the LDS site.
I also hope I don't get a ton of replies on this. I already get 200 or
more e-mails on some days just because I belong to all these lists. I
really don't need many replies. Just try to be patient and sift through
their information and glean what you can and be glad they care enough to
be willing to help and share.
Ed Scriven
Layton, Utah