Now we have a new version of FamilySearch.org and there is no menu item for the IGI, so where did the IGI go?
The simple answer is that the member submissions went to nFS and the Extracted Records are still on FamilySearch.org in Historical Records. How do you find them?
I have to admit that I was one of the people that worried about losing the ability to search by Batch Numbers when I saw the beta familysearch site – and sent a request for their continuation as a search field.
Now . .. . having done a little searching I am pleased to see the batch numbers in the search results in Historical Records – but I don’t need to go away to look up a batch number in order to do a search.
Let me demonstrate.
I want to look for births or christenings or marriages in the parish of Wath upon Dearne in Yorkshire, England.
- Go to FamilySearch.org – Historical Records
- In the Place field type Wath upon Dearne
- Press search
Yes you can search with just a place name!
I tried putting in a church name in addition to the place such as St Mary, Nottingham – and it searched for that too
Advanced search let me select a particular event such as Birth, Marriage, Death or Residence.
Some searches allow for a range of years asking for a From and To year. Other places you give a year and then plus and minus. If you select the middle year of your range the plus and minus go to 20 years which would result in a 40 year range.
Having found I could search just for Wath upon Dearne I thought I would try for one of my surnames in that parish so I entered Birks in the Last Name field, set the Event to marriage and quickly found my ancestor’s marriage in 1816. Henry Birks married Esther Bintcliffe. Click on Henry’s name and you see the batch number and the source film. Using the Library Catalog with the film number I found the source to be a Bishop’s Transcript.
After doing a search, notice that in the lower left that there is a list of Categories. These are filters that you can select. If you don’t select Event Marriages before searching then you can filter to Births and Christenings or Marriages – and in brackets you are told how many records there are.
Now I know, this search engine is not perfect. Show me one that is! I am still learning how to use the new search engine. I know that we are not familiar with it and some of us want to go back to what we know . . . – and you can if you need to! I found myself having lots of fun trying all the options in the Historical Records search tool.
I know that FamilySearch would appreciate your suggestions for improvement.
There are still some things missing from the new site – see the document “Adjusting to the New Version of www.familysearch.org” – directions to get the document were in the 9 January article. Searching in the Pedigree Resource File still is not yet available on the new version of FamilySearch – but we are told it is coming.
To me the searches seem quick. They allow all sorts of filtering of initial results. I am enjoying learning how to search Historical Records.
There is lots for us to explore and to learn!
Really easy!!! I think you and i have a different definition of easy/easier. In the old system you could enter a name and the batch number would come up, you then used the batch number and every one who was in that batch would come up. The new system is like taking the back roads (think of all the things that may distract you along the way???) instead of the highway. You may get the same out come, but boy, does it take waaaayyyy longer
Peter:
Thanks so much for this posting. It has been very helpful and will also make a wonderful resource for others.
Hmm! Well I can see that if the old system was giving you the batch numbers right away . . . . Most of the time I was using Hugh Wallace’s database to look up a place to see if there is extraction, and then taking the batch number from there and going back to IGI to do the search.
Thanks, Peter, for posting this. Most of us like the old, familiar way of doing things. It is good to be reminded that the new, unfamiliar has merit as well.