Genealogy Chat

Thanks for some very useful info. Moira

To add to the original tip - you don't have to go in via the Hugh Wallis site to do a sibling search. If you DO put a batch number in (either via Hugh Wallis or any other way) you will get baptisms in the same batch which usually means the same church. BUT you can also use the main search screen in a similar way. (make sure you click on the IGI on the left of the screen first) leave the boxes for first name & surname blank, but fill in father's first name & surname, and mother's first name. Leave mother's surname blank. Note - If you don't have a batch number you MUST have a mother's name - so this won't work for earlier records where the mother's name wasn't given. Next make sure you have selected a region - eg Bristish Isles - country (eg England) and County. This will then bring you everyone in the county with those parents. You can also restrict by dates - say within 20 years of 1800 - This way, you may find siblings baptised in nearby parishes. But be careful of assuming its the same family especially if the names are common. Always try to find other corroborative evidence. Another thing to watch for is the first wife dying & dad remarrying of course!

many thanks V-V. typically the one I need is missing (GGGrandad) but thanks to the tip I have found all his other siblings listed, so 8/9 not a bad score!!

to answer karen - it is my understanding that a batch will contain all the records in one set of registers, so it will cover (usually) only one church, and only for a certain period of time. So in a popular church with loads of entries there may be several different batches. So if the children are baptised in different churches, they are probably in different batches. Over a 20 year period they may be in the same batch or not. When searching, remember that not all registers are completely transcribed yet - I have an annoying time with only female baptisms shown for one of my churches. Also, the LDS tend to rotate the information available on the web site, so that not all of it is available at the same time.

great tip about the batch no's. sorry to jump in on your thread............................ but what if it doesn't give me all the family? Can someone answer the following questions. 1)does this mean i have errors in my tree, 2)does the batch no change if kids are registered at different places/ churches 3) or would they just be down under a different batch no ( kids were born over a 20yr span) karenx

Excellent! Thanks for explaining that, I'll give it a go. I've tended not to use the IGI so much as I was looking for my mum's birth family but now I'm trying to go back a bit further on her side, it may well be useful. Thanks Claire

Yes Clare - you're right - so I have amended the header. The search I referred to was on the Familysearch site. Look up a birth that you are familiar with/or find with the right parents. Go down to the bottom of the screen and click on the batch number. It will bring up a new screen. Enter the parents names again, district and year range. Hit search and voila - the whole family!! Fantastic. Best advice ever!! Victoria

Hi, Was this on the www.familysearch.org website under the IGI page or using the Hugh Wallis site, listed below (remove the brackets)? http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb(.)com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers/ On the Hugh Wallis site before I've clicked on the batch numbers and searched by surname to bring up possible ancestors for an area that I'm interested in. I don't think I've put the batch numbers back into the IGI search page on the www.familysearch.org site before though and got it to work. It only gives me the closests option to search 'Continental Europe' when I put the batch number and surname in, I can't seem to be able to put England or Saint Lukes, Chelsea for example. .....just found I can search for 'British Isles' as an area option. How did you use your batch number to get the list of children and did you find it via the Hugh Wallis site? Thanks for any tips you can give I've just tried again and on a page once it has brought up a list of possible ancestors in the www.familysearch.org site, after you've asked it to search for a name. At the bottom of the screen is a section that has the batch number listed and the source number etc. I clicked on the batch number and it took me back to the front search page and then when I hit return (the IGI main search screen just had the batch number entered in it at this stage - no surname) it brought up all the records for that batch in alphabetical order. Is this what you meant? Thanks Claire p..s If you put a clue in the title as to 'IGI batch numbers' in addition to your existing title it might help us find this thread in future or attract other people to look at it and give advice! ta!

A while back someone explained how to look up a birth/baptism on the IGI, click on the batch number and get a list of all the children born to the parents. I am SO grateful to whoever it was. I printed it out but hadn't realized that there was name attached until I went to try it out recently. So to the anonymous person, I am sorry that I inadvertently missed your name but THANK YOU nonetheless. It is, I think, the best bit of advice I have had. Victoria