International Genealogical Index (IGI)
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons, believe that it is possible and essential to baptise and remarry their ancestors 'post-mortem'. To this end members of the church are charged with drawing up their genealogy. The church assists it members in this task by making microfilm and microfiche copies of parish registers available to its members and any other interested parties.
The LDS has extracted the baptism and marriage entries from many registers and placed them in a massive data base known as the International Genealogical Index (IGI). This index is available to study on mircofiche, CD-ROM and most usefully on the Internet (address - http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/frameset_search.asp).
Although there are gaps in the coverage of the IGI it is often possible to locate missing ancestors or relatives, or construct whole family groups from information it contains. The IGI is, however, only an index to parish register entries. There are errors and ommissions, so the orginal source documents must be consulted where possible.
