The International Genealogical Index (IGI) is an index compiled by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as LDS or Mormons).
It was originally known as the Computer File Index (CFI) and was first published in 1975, with updates approximately every 4 years until 1992. It covers over 90 countries.
It is a listing of christenings (baptisms) and marriages from various sources, including parish registers, bishops’ transcripts, non-conformist registers, compiled marriage indexes, censuses, wills, and LDS members’ research.
Most entries, however, have come from extracting christening and marriage information from parish registers.
It includes entries only for deceased persons. Entries span the period from the early 1500s to 1875, although christening and marriage entries for most English parishes are only included up to the beginning of civil registration (mid-1837). The coverage for each county also varies a great deal, depending on the extent of the sources made available to the Mormon compilers, and can vary from 3% to 100%. About 60% of Devon parishes up to 1812 and in some cases up to 1837 are included.
The IGI for Devon and in some cases for other counties is available locally on microfiche at the following places:
If you live outside the county of Devon, or overseas, you can find the address of your nearest Mormon Family History Centre through the following website: www.familysearch.com
The IGI for the countries of the United Kingdom and overseas countries is also available at the Family Records Centre and the Society of Genealogists in London. Most local studies libraries or reference libraries in England and Wales have the IGI for at least their own county. It is also held at all family history society libraries and at some public libraries overseas. For information on libraries which have the IGI check the Familia website.
The IGI is available on-line through the LDS website: www.familysearch.com
There are a number of useful websites covering various aspects of using the IGI.
The notes which follow are designed mainly to assist those who wish to use the microfiche version.
The microfiche version has detailed instructions, on accompanying microfiche, of how to use it, and is used in conjunction with two complementary sets of microfiche:
The Parish and Vital Records List
This lists country by country, and parish by parish, the records available for each parish and from which the IGI has been compiled.
The Batch Number Index
This allows you to trace the source of the information used for each entry on the IGI, and to order up films, using the input source call number.
It has been the policy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to collect or film any record of genealogical interest which is made available to them. In many countries, original parish registers have been made available for filming. In those English counties where this has been the case, the IGI entries for christenings and marriages are compiled from microfilms of the original registers, and copies of these microfilms can be ordered up for consultation in any of the LDS (Mormon) Family History Centres around the world.
The IGI for Devon is not compiled from original registers, as Devon clergy did not grant permission to the Mormons to film the original parish registers. Instead they were granted permission to film the typed and hand-written transcripts of parish registers which had been made by the Devon and Cornwall Record Society. Some transcribers did an excellent job; others were inexpert. Therefore the IGI can include mistakes: omissions, errors and mis-spellings.
In addition, since only about 60% of Devon parishes had been transcribed, about 40% of Devon parishes are not included on the IGI. In the case of some parishes, not all parish registers were transcribed, even where these were registers prior to 1837. Therefore the coverage for parishes which ARE included on the IGI may still be incomplete.
If you want to know whether a particular parish is included in the IGI, what records were used, and what dates are covered, you must look at the microfiche of the Parish and Vital Records List.
SURNAME: Possible spelling variations are treated as the same name and grouped together under one "Standard" spelling.
FORENAMES: names are filed alphabetically as they appear in the original record; e.g. abbreviations like Wm., Jno., Richd or Latinised forenames like Jacobus, Gulielmus are all listed in strict alphabetical order.
FATHER, MOTHER OR SPOUSE: a christening entry includes one or both parents’ names, depending on what is included in the original register.
Marriages are indexed under both surnames if both occur in the original register
SEX: M for male; F for female in christening entry
H for husband and W for wife in marriage entry
TYPE OF ENTRY: C for christening and occasionally. B for birth. M for marriage
DATE OF EVENT: If birth and christening dates both appear in a christening entry the IGI only shows the christening date. You must check the original register to see if a birth date has been included as well. Where there is more than one entry under a particular name e.g. PROWSE, John, events are listed in date order. Events are listed under old calendar year dates if they appear that way in the register.
TOWN or PARISH NAME: If only the parish name is given, assume it refers to the established church (in England, this is the Church of England parish church).
If there was more than one church in a parish or if the church is a non-conformist church, the church will be named.
COLUMNS B, E and S: these 3 columns refer to dates of ordinances performed by the church and are only of relevance to researchers if the word child appears; this tells you that the child is known to have died before 8 years of age.
SOURCE: BATCH NUMBER AND SERIAL SHEET NUMBER: The key to ordering copies of parish register entries and alphabetical surname listings extracted from parish registers. Entries extracted from registers have batch numbers beginning with the letters C, E, J, K, P or M.
The accuracy of such entries depends on the source of the members’ information and on the quality of their genealogical research. Some of these entries may result from oral family reminiscences, not from documentary evidence. They can also result from the assumptions of researchers rather than documentary evidence. They have numerical batch numbers (cf. batch numbers beginning with the letters listed above). Some were submitted and extracted many years ago by persons now deceased.
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