ILSANGAM-L Archives

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Subject: Re: [ILSANGAM-L] LDS files
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2001 00:25:25 EDT

Like all databases, the IGI (LDS abbreviation for International Genealogical
Index) and the Ancestral File should be used with caution. They should be
considered secondary evidence (or maybe only hearsay) and should be checked
against primary records. I know this is heresy in some quarters, but
experience leads me to question the information. It should be used as
guidelines only.

Generally, if you are seeking British records and there is a C or an M before
a number, which number is the probable source, then this information has been
taken from largely parish records in England.

All published information should be checked against primary records.
Otherwise, it should be considered secondary or hearsay. Most of us doing US
research start out with census records, and then we try to study other
records which were made at the time the person was alive. Court records and
land records are generally fairly reliable. Vital records were not kept in
the South, with some exceptions, until very late (genealogically speaking).

E.W.Wallace
southern California

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