Genealogy Chat

This is something that is well known to all old hands at searching the IGI but may be new to newcomers to the Genealogy business. Go the the IGI Search page (LDS - FamilySearch) and instead of just using the individual search boxes go straight to the 'Father' - 'Last Name', 'Mother' boxes at the right-hand side. Put a father's first name in 'Father' box, surname in 'Last Name' box; a mother's first name in 'Mother' box; enter the other search parameters, event, time frame, region etc and click 'Search'. The search engine will come up with a list of children born to the parent names entered within the time frame, region etc selected, assuming the children are in the IGI also. It's fairly obvious in hindsight 'cos all the boxes are there, but it's surprising how many don't realise their function! regards J.

Yes a good tip. I have found lots of siblings that way. It is also useful to enter the batch number as well if you are interested in a particular parish. Gillian

Can I add that it is often quicker, if you want to do this, to go in through the Hugh Wallis site - you avoid all the annoying wait to get onto the LDS Search page! Olde Crone

Useful tip from Olde Crone for an alternative look-up site. For myself even when I was only on dial-up I've never had to wait to get onto the LDS Search page, which I've got bookmarked rather than their Home page.....J.

That's interesting....I hardly ever use the Hugh Wallis site because it's sooooooo s-l-o-w for me, but the LDS site is fast!! How odd?! Merry

HA! It has never occurred to me to bookmark the search page..... DURH! Olde Crone

What good ideas!I use the lds site a lot and will now bookmark the search page and will try putting in parents to hunt down siblings. Excellent! Ta very much! Elaine

what is this site. Do you have the site address? LISSA

all the w's *familysearch*org replace * with fullstop Claire

If you get the batch number from the HW site, you can use it to search by christian name on the LDS site - can be handy for finding possible surnames of marriage partners.

I've nudged this because it might be relevant to Suzanne's query on finding siblings...J.

thanks for the tips

Maria, I think you may be doing your parent search from the screen that says ''All Resources'' from the list down the left-hand edge of the screen. If, before you enter the names, you click the ''International Genealogical Index'' at the left hand side, then you will be able to fill in more boxes on the next screen and the search should still work. You can then fill in a maximum of the following boxes for a parent search: Father Last Name Mother Last Name (don't fill this one in usually, as the mum's surname is generally the same as dad's) Year Range Year Region (and if you change this to British Isles, the next two boxes will be.......) Country County DON'T FILL IN THE EVENT BOX, 'coz it doesn't like that!! Having said all of the above, you said that when you did your search you only got five American results. The name combination must have been unusual and there were no UK results for that search, so there would be no point in trying the same names as I have described above.....you would get no results for the UK. Usually you need to use the IGI screen, as described, in order to restrict the results to something managable to look through. Hope this makes some sense??!! Merry

THANK YOU JUDE !! I have known for a long time that you could do this but hve never been able to make it work - Thanks to your thread and Merry's very clear instructions, I have now got a result. I shall be here all day now going through all 'my people'. Thanks again to all, Dea x

Hi Dea, I would have thought YOU could just have waved your Fairy Godmother magic wand to get the results??!!! Merry x

Cheeeeky Merry !! If only it were so easy !!!!!!! Thanks for the help, yet again. Dea Xxx

Is there any way of seeing the rest of the pedigree ie the parents of the husband and wife I have searched on ? Matthew

Matthew, You can do a Pedigree search of the type you mention using the CDs, but it may utilise the 'Pedigree Files' only, perhaps someone else has experience of this. The CDs can be used for free at yr local LDS Family Search Centre and the result of a Pedigree search is not just parents but the entire extant family tree of the individuals concerned. You used to be able to do this online but the last couple of times I tried it didn't work...J PS I'm glad I managed to do something right at last!!!!! J.

Merry, thanks for expanding on my original explanation, adding artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative. I had a direct query from a young lady in Australia last night who was experiencing similar difficulties and I'd written a whole screed of explanation like yours before it suddenly came to me specifically that the reason was the All Sources search page she was probably working from. Of course I commited the cardinal sin of being precise with The IGI bit and then muddying the water by alluding to the LDS for those unacquainted with the FamilySearch site. Just to clarify; my bookmark is specifically for the IGI search page not to the 'All Sources' search page so I go straight to the required search engine. All my other relevant search sites are similarly set up so that I go, e.g. directly to the Search page of FreeBMD, FreeCen, etc. Olde Crone, I know we've crossed swords a couple of times but after you'd posted your recognition of the useful bookmarking thingy on MY thread my estimation of you has gone up 200%. best regards, J.

Also if you have a likely candidate come up, you can just click the batch number at the bottom of the screen instead of then having to go to the Hugh Wallis site too. It will open up a new page with the batch number already there for you, so you can just put in the parents as mentioned above, and specify a range of years. Altenatively you could also just put the surname in and find all the instances of that name in the parish.