Hi all, (Another one that didn't get through the first time.)
I spent some time last night and this morning testing the IGI Search feature; I have some comments and questions. First, I generally have little regard for the IGI and other FamilySearch databases. A very high percentage of the information contributed by individuals is simply incorrect. If this feature is not used carefully, you will just have the genealogical equivalent to a better road map to the town dump. I found only one record last night that I was willing to add to my tree. That one was extracted from a county marriage record. More about this later. Now, down from my rant against the IGI, which applies equally to a lot of other Internet genealogy collections, I've found two useful buttons on the feature. After clicking on Search, you will see the "Retrieving information for...." message at the bottom, then "Collecting Details." If you watch the bottom right-hand corner, you will eventually see the "That's Enough" button pop up. My experience is that this button should be clicked as soon as it comes up; further hits are probably not the correct person. I discovered that when I was doing a seach which had 890 hits. I think about five were the right person. On the next screen, "Possible Matches from IGI," there is a very neat, but well disguised, button at the bottom. It's a simple "@" sign. I clicked on it out of curiosity. Nothing seemed to happen. But then I noticed I now had a window open to the IGI itself on FamilySearch, directly on the person in the highlighted hit. In my humble opinion you should first look at the "Messages:" line to see if the information was submitted by an individual or was extracted from a record. I noticed that there were never any children showing up in the Family tab. Also, I saw nothing under Events and Notes. Since the tabs are there, I assume that these are items which will eventually be added. (I have since found one person with an Event.) I haven't tried to use the automatic updating of Legacy from the IGI information. Sorry, but what goes into my tree is typed by me! I don't use Merge from GEDCOMs either. Picky, I guess. I haven't had any of the reported problems with signing in to FamiySearch or with the GEO database. Bill Hurst Legacy User Group Etiquette guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup%40mail.millenniacorp.com/ To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/LegacyLists.asp
