This week I have been having a play with a great new family history resource that has been developed by Steve Archer. The aim of his site is to build on the work of Hugh Wallis by providing a way to search the IGI using batch numbers.
Though the Archersoftware site doesn’t offer all the information that the wonderful IGI Batch Numbers website created by Hugh Wallis in 2002 once did, it does update and certainly augments much of that information. For some time the Hugh Wallis site seems to be broken, which is a real shame.
The main differences from what had been on the Hugh Wallis’s site and the Archersoftware site, as listed on Steve Archer’s own site are these:
- The inclusion of the British batches added since 2002, especially the “I” batches.
- The new site doesn’t list North American batch numbers.
- It contains a detailed analysis of “Mixed” batches – those containing data from more than one place.
- Places are assigned to historic counties as at the mid-19th century, e.g. entries for ‘London’ are assigned to the City of London, Middlesex, Surrey or Kent.
- Listings have been substantially cleaned, and incorporate many corrections to place-name syntax.
- Listings include the number of entries (events) in each batch and the covering dates, both derived from the actual data.
- Some summary statistics are provided.
Steve Archer’s website lists the Extracted batches for the British Isles that previously formed part of the IGI (International Genealogical Index), the on-line database created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and available at www.familysearch.org.
While Steve Archer’s FamilySearch: a Guide to the British batches website is still under construction it is well worth taking a look at it now: http://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/
I reveal more resources for researching your English/Welsh ancestors in my courses and great value Cheat sheets over at Family History Researcher Academy.
If you want to discover where to look for your elusive ancestors take a look at this.
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