STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS FOR CORRECT USE OF
THE FAMILY SEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX (IGI)
After clicking here, "All Resources", you'll see a screen which allows you to check EVERYTHING at FamilySearch.org all at once. The screen shows "Search for Ancestors - All Resources." In addition to this valuable source, you will see a clickable link (the image of a young woman, known as "Personal Assistant"), on that page, which you should later evaluate. First, follow these steps.
Type in the FIRST NAME and LASTNAME.
Select GERMANY for your country.
Select ALL STATES.
Click on SEARCH.
Scroll through the list of documents available through the Family History Library at the LDS Church. It is not a complete list of all the church documents in Germany. Some will be labeled FHL, others IGI. You are looking at both sources at once.
Look for a response that most closely resembles the ancestor you are looking for.
There is an EDIT click at the top of your screen. Click on that, then click on FIND. Type in a keyword, such as the name of a town you are interested in. Examine carefully each FOUND entry. Make a note of which page you found any possible ancestor on, and click on the name that you found. After examining the information provided, return to your search screen.
Go to the bottom of the screen and click on the NEXT button.
Using the FIND function, look for the same keyword on this page. Continue this process until you run out of entries.
Make sure you record the batch numbers you are finding. The letter C precedes the number for christenings, the letter M for marriages.
Go back to your search screen and type in the LASTNAME only, then in the BATCH box, type in the Batch Number you recorded.
To find a christening date enter the FIRSTNAME and LASTNAME, GERMANY, and ALL STATES.
Enter the BIRTH-CHRISTENING YEAR RANGE, choose a +/- value, and an approximate YEAR.
Use your EDIT and FIND function to find the entries for a specific town or other keyword.
The spelling then may not be the same as the spelling you have recorded. Try using your EDIT and FIND function on the entire batch, searching for a town or other keyword. Remember, you are searching the entire BATCH NUMBER.
If you have a middle name, try using it as the FIRSTNAME
in your search.
Another option is to insert "Germany" in the region field and the BATCH NUMBER
in that field.
Here are two recent additions to your research effort:
IGI
Surname Index
(Change the Surname after the equals sign)
Compare what you have found with the original church document films, available through the Family History Center at your local LDS Church. The original document contains more information that what you can find online.
For the LDS FHL Catalog, CLICK HERE. Search the catalog by Film #. Place whatever film number has been referenced in the IGI notes (also available from the FamilySearch site), and click search. You'll get the notes on the whole film. A helpful tip is that often a number of small parishes were filmed at the same time and will appear on a given film; generally these parishes were close by. So, ordering one film may get you two or more parishes in the same area.