Why isn't there a direct link to IGI records, except through the Wiki?
Apart from keeping a bookmark (and via Wiki), is there no other straightforward way of getting to https://www.familysearch.org/search/c...? (Page shown below)
Okay, some of these records are of poor quality, but some ARE very useful, so their "home page" should be much easier to find.
Comments
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Gordon Collett said: Does this take you to the page you want?
On the main Search page use the Find A Collection box:
to go directly to:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/c...0 -
Paul said: Thanks for that, Gordon. Still a bit too "hidden away" for my liking.
I guess the idea of what importance / prominence should be given to the IGI records depends on your personal experience. Even as late as the mid-1980s - when I embarked on my research at the Hyde Park "Family History Library" - the IGI was my main source in finding so many of my ancestors. So, to me, I find it sad to see it "relegated" to the status of being, effectively, "just another collection".0 -
gasmodels said: Just some added information the IGI is broken into two parts presently identified as Community Contributed and Community Indexed. The methodology described by Gordon will lead you to the ability to search both or either of this portions of the IGI. The other link through Genealogies as described by Paul is restricted to the Community Contributed portion of the IGI but it is not called that in the Genealogies page. This is why you are seeing two different links to the IGI because you are entering and searching different portions.
I won't go into detail regarding my own opinion of this strange way of presenting information. But simply say I believe FamilySearch is attempting to discourage use of the IGI and focus more on searching Family Tree and Historical records in general.0 -
Lundgren said: Thank you for your feedback.
As far as a collection, the IGI was always a mixed bag in that it crosses boarders and time seemly without any reason.
Today, the historic records that were all together in the IGI collection are now found other collections that are searchable the collections page. That patchwork IGI collection as it once was, no longer exists as a single collection.
The other part of what was the IGI is the community contributed portion of the IGI. That part is searchable with other community contributed genealogies in the Genealogies Search.
The link https://www.familysearch.org/search/c... does a search across both the historic records and the genealogies search in a single page. It has several bugs, and is very out dated compared to the straight records search. The future of that page is still not fully defined as the functionality already exists in genealogies search without nearly so many issues.
As for trying to steer people away from the contributed genealogies, that was not an intended effect. There is a lot of valuable information in the contributed genealogies if you know where to look. The problem is knowing where to look.
There is a significant effort underway to refactor the genealogies search. I had hoped you could see it today on beta, but it isn't yet visible there.0 -
Jeff Wiseman said: Although it doesn't take you to that exact page, one other way to search the IGI might be to just use the Search -> Genealogies and then set the filter to IGI.
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Paul said: If you follow my links, you will find I have already tried this, Jeff. The outcome / required page is not the same as https://www.familysearch.org/search/c.... This route takes me to https://www.familysearch.org/search/f... instead.0
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Lundgren said: @Jeff, that only searches the user contributed portion. Not the historical records portion.0
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Paul said: Lundgren
Sorry I did not acknowledge your earlier response. Thanks, as always.0 -
Paul said: Incidentally, I thought I would illustrate how these IGI records can still be useful - especially when searching on a specific parish / batch number.
The link below is to the website containing batch numbers for the British Isles and North America.
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hughwa...
From there, I find the batch number for the parish from which I want to check records. Then I go to https://www.familysearch.org/search/c...? input my batch number and get results, as illustrated below.
Although these records are all supposed to be on the main https://www.familysearch.org/search/ website, it is sometimes difficult to separate records of parishes with similar names, or even discover exactly the format in which to input the place name. Consequently, I find this a good alternative method of searching, especially in fitting certain circumstances. (e.g. search on whole parish, rather than a specific surname.)
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Don M Thomas said: Thank you Employee Lundgren for your heads up about "Genealogies." Will be looking forward to see it in beta.0
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Lundgren said: The updated interface to search genealogies is now visible on beta:
https://beta.familysearch.org/search/...0 -
gasmodels said: It appears that collection type does not work on the site. There is a dropdown arrow to select but nothing shows in the selection box. Edge browser. I did not investigate other browsers.0
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Paul said: I hope this does not signal the beginning of the end for the page at https://www.familysearch.org/search/c.... As illustrated at https://getsatisfaction.com/familysea... searching for records by parish name is far easier from that page than in finding them at https://www.familysearch.org/search/.
Obviously, the search is limited to those records that were on the IGI but, in my case, that represents a large percentage of my FamilySearch sources! Please still allow access to this page until an easier way can be found the IGI records - I frequently have difficulty with this, in spite of them all (Community Indexed ones) supposedly being on the main website.0 -
I too am frustrated that the original IGI records can not be easily found. Community added data may be incorrect and so I relied on the IGI records from LDS, knowing they were correct and that LDS put them there, not just anyone. Also, when you search via 'genealogies' and apply the 'IGI' filter, that only takes you to community added trees with what is supposedly IGI records, but how do we know they are actually IGI records if the source says e.g "submitted by chayes1860116 [identity withheld for privacy]; no source information is available." Therefore, just taking us around in circles. The site, I find, is now also more difficult to read and navigate/use. I liked the old format much better (see below). Please bring the IGI search back and change the whole format to look more like it used to?!
Thank you for all your hard work Family Search. x
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@songbirdkc, the IGI is sometimes very, very far from correct. It is chock-full of misreadings and typos, and should not be relied on any more than any other index.
You can get to the search page for the IGI using Genealogies under the Search menu. In the "Explore one of our collections" section, go all the way to the right and click "Search For A Person" under the IGI. https://www.familysearch.org/search/genealogies/collection/5
You can even search by batch number. https://www.familysearch.org/search/genealogies/results?count=20&q.batchNumber=7526216&q.collectionId=5&q.surname=Bull
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You may be being confused by a change in terminology. When the current Family Search site was released in 2012, The IGI was split into two parts: the user submitted part and the indexed part. The user submissions is what you find under Genealogies. The indexed part is all the historical databases you find under Search under Records. It sounds like you are looking for those indexed records and that you are putting way too much confidence in those indexes. Please be sure you always check the original records. The indexes do have their fair share of errors.
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For example, I can pretty much replicate your second screen shot with this search: https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?exactSearching=true&q.batchNumber=c022862&q.surname=bull&q.surname.exact=on This is the IGI.
And here is the current IGI entry for your first screen: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZHW-79R As you can see, it has been divided out to the proper historical record collection but it is the same IGI entry with the identical information and batch number.
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I had previously thought that not all the IGI extracted records were available through the main search, but I have just found an IGI record that certainly doesn't appear to have that origin when viewing from a Search page.
The screenshot (from the relevant individual's sources section) clearly shows it to come from the IGI extraction programme:
It doesn't appear that way from "Search", except that same URL can be seen in all views:
As discussed, the IGI patron submitted records have not been carried across (I believe that applies to all of them) and can be found in the Genealogies section.
Basically, I'm agreeing with Gordon here, but providing another example.
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