Submitted by   Janet Paulos Khashab

What are IGI batch numbers?

    The IGI is the “International Geographical Index” compiled by the Church of the  

Latter Day Saints (LDS) for and by their church members. It is an index to millions of births and marriages of people from all over the world.  There are two types of records to which this index refer (1) submitted records and (2) extracted records. Submitted records are those which have been submitted by church members about their own ancestors. The accuracy of these records depends upon the individual submitter and the source document is rarely indicated. The extracted records, however, are taken from the actual microfilmed church documents of marriages and christenings. These extractions are done by volunteers who are supervised and trained to do this work.  Each group of records corresponds to a certain place, time and microfilm record number and is assigned a unique “batch number”.  So although the extracted records might have errors in them, the actual records can be checked by ordering the microfilms of the documents from one of the LDS Family History Centers.

How can batch numbers be used for genealogical research?

    The IGI can be searched on-line by going to the LDS website at www.familysearch.org and clicking on the “Search” tab and then clicking on “International Geographical Index” on the list on the left. The form on the right must be filled in with at least the name of an ancestor and a country. There are no “wild card” searches and although there is some leeway in spelling you are usually at the mercy of the extractor and the scribe of the original document. For example, if the surname you are looking for is “Gonzalez”, “Gonzales” and “Gonsales” will also be returned but usually not the scribal shorthand form “Gons”and surely not the unusual spelling “Gonsalos”.

   This is where batch numbers can be used to an advantage. Down at the bottom of the search form there is a blank for batch number. This is a letter (usually C for christenings and M for marriages) followed by six digits. With this number and the region or country only you can search all records of a particular place and time period without regards to the spelling of the name.

    I use batch number searches to find siblings and half-siblings of an ancestor I know was born in a certain place and time by filling in the father’s and/or mother’s name with the batch number and country. It is also useful to use batch numbers for nearby towns if your ancestors suddenly seem to disappear and you don’t know where they have moved.

Where can you find batch numbers?

     Lists of batch numbers are not published by the LDS but some researchers have made their own lists available on-line. As far as I know, there is no list for Mexico but there are for Argentina, Uruguay and Perú on the Yahoo groups list for Latin America.  I have done a list for Nuevo León, Tamaulipas and Coahuila which is given below. Please note that films with ** contain both christenings, burials and marriages; (m) after a batch number indicates that there are only males in this batch and (f) indicates females (do not put this m or f in the form). “Na” means not available.

 For further information see www.pricegen.com/resources/globalbatchnumbers.htm.