Later Day Saint Record Collections
The pre-eminent source of genealogical information is the
Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints (the Mormons). There is an online catalogue of this
immense library, and there are Family History Centres which
are in effect branches of this library in many towns and cities
throughout the British Isles and indeed the world where microfilm
copies of most of the library's holdings can be viewed. (The
method or organization of the catalogue of this library has,
incidentally, been taken as a pattern for the organization
of much of the information on this server.)
One particularly important information source that has been produced by the Family History Library is the International Genealogical Index (or IGI), now available on line at the LDS FamilySearch site. This contains millions of entries, mainly of baptisms and marriages, many of them taken from parish registers as part of an organized program of careful transcription, others provided by individual and not always overly careful researchers. Although you will need to check the original souces of the information contained in the Index, you will often find that the Index can be a great help to your research. However, its coverage is far from complete, so the fact that the ancestor you are seeking does not appear in the IGI should not cause you to give up. (Note however that the IGI includes essentially all Scottish births and marriages between the years 1855 and 1875, extracted from the civil registration records.)
The LDS also produce a set of Research Guides - introductory
guides to the genealogy of various countries and states. These
are very well done, and very good value for money. They have
the added advantage over many commercially-published introductory
texts that they provide indications of the holdings of the
Family History Library. They can be ordered via your local
LDS Family History Centre, and can be viewed online at the
LDS FamilySearch site.
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Free Family History Workbook Available at LDS. The Latter Day Saints Church offers this free booklet to assist you in searching for your roots.
LDS Mormon Church Family Search Site You will find searches, indexes and a bottomless amount of helpful information on how to find genealogy records. This is one of the free genealogy sites on the internet you must bookmark and cannot be without.
1880 US, 1881 British, and 1881 Canadian Census Search at LDS These census records have been transcribed and placed online in a searchable database. You are given many options for searching these census records, which gives you a better chance of locating the ancestors you are searching for. Be sure to try various spellings. The search is set up with an option for exact spelling of the surname. Due to so many spelling errors in the actual documents along with the spelling errors which occurred in the transcription of these records, many names are misspelled and some are garbled beyond recognition. Leaving the exact spelling option off, gives you the your search the power to check various spellings. You are given the option to search all of these census databases at one time or select them individually so if you KNOW your ancestors were in the United States, of course select U.S. or in Canada, select Canada etc...
International Genealogy Index at the LDS Mormon Church This fantastic resource is a partial index to vital records from all over the world. Be sure to check original records to be sure this information is accurate.. Do not use the information found here as fact. In fact, it is the wise genealogist who will always check original documents for accuracy. There are a lot or genealogical errors found online.
Pedigree Resource File at the LDS Mormon Church These are files which have been submitted by members of the Mormon Church who have researched their ancestry. These can contain great clues but be aware, there are a vast amount of errors in these files. Again, I can't stress this enough, DOCUMENT GENEALOGY INFORMATION in original documents. If you find a record transcription online, or a mention of a record online, be it a census record, vital record i.e. birth, death or marriage record, or any other type of record, get your hands on the original record or order a copy of the original document so you can verify the information yourself. Remember.... all it takes is a typo by the transcriber and the date you have is wrong unless you have verified it yourself. Without documentation, your genealogy research becomes mythology. Sure it is great to speculate, that is how we draw our conclusions as to where we should search next, but keep your documented research separate from your speculative research.
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