For many years, the International Genealogical Index (IGI) database has been one of several important record collections that made up FamilySearch. Patrons could search the IGI for individual names, relationships and other useful information. Many have noticed that there is no IGI present on the new site and some have noticed that there are IGI records that they know are present on the old FamilySearch site which they cannot find on the updated FamilySearch site. So "Where is the IGI on the new site?"
The IGI consisted of two types of data. Both types of IGI data have been relocated to different collections.
Extracted IGI
The majority of the IGI was data extracted from various church parish registers and many other original record collections. Because these were source records, they have been published as part of the original record collections they were extracted from in the Historical Records collection. These records will show up in the search results when a patron searches the Historical Records. The advantage of this is that these records can now be seen in their original historical Collection, Place, Date and Type context.
Patron Contributed IGI
A smaller portion of the IGI consisted of lineage-linked conclusion data originally submitted to the IGI by members of the LDS Church. This "Tree" Data has been included in the www.familysearch.org/ which is currently available to members of the LDS church and which will be made available to the general public as the "Family Tree" later this year. We will also be making the patron contributed portion of the IGI available as a separate data set under the "Trees" search portion of the new website.
Source and Conclusion Data Should Not be Mixed
Source data is different from conclusion data and should be searched and represented differently on site. By publishing the extracted records in the Historical Records and the patron contributed portion in the Trees section of the site (which also contains the Ancestral File and Pedigree Resource File), each portion will be treated properly.
But I Can't Find My Favorite IGI Record!
Some patrons have noticed some specific IGI records that they know were present on the old FamilySearch website are not present on the updated website. Only a portion of the extracted IGI and none of the patron contributed IGI is currently available in the updated FamilySearch.org website yet. FamilySearch is committed to publishing all the legacy IGI records onto the new site before the old site is permanently retired. The extracted sources will be present in the Historical Records data. The patron contributed conclusion data will be searchable under the Trees search. We expect to have all this data published over the next few months.
