Contents of FamilySearch Web Site

Our Web site has just a tiny fraction of the information available to researchers in original records. It consists of three types of records:


 * 1) Information submitted to us by patrons.
 * 2) Information extracted from civil and church records.
 * 3) Governmental sources such as census and the United States Social Security Death Index.

If your family does not appear on our Web site it is because 1) no one has submitted the information to us; 2) your ancestors did not live in an area where the records have been extracted' or 3) they are still living. Living people do not appear on our site.

1. Information submitted to us by patrons.

This includes such records as the Ancestral File, and the Pedigree Resource File. The Ancestral File was the first attempt to create a way for families to submit information and link up to other trees as people found common ancestors. It was discontinued in 2003.

The Pedigree Resource File was begun in 1999. The information in the file cannot be changed. Updates are made by sending a new submission.

2. Information extracted from civil and church records.

Much of this is extracted from a wide variety of church and civil records. This includes primarily births and christenings, although in a few cases, deaths or other events appear as the dates on this.The International Genealogical Index or IGI is the database that contains this information. While some is the result of LDS member submissions for religious reasons,

3. Governmental records, such as the census records and the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).

This last category is a combination of extracted records and Government-provided databases. Census records have been extracted and more are being extracted via the FamilySearch Indexing software program, where volunteers spend as little as 30 minutes extracting an entire batch. The government-provided databases like the SSDI are updated by FamilySearch approximately twice a year with the latest information, and contain vital records information for more recent deaths. One may find the information for deceased parents, grandparents, and on occasion, siblings in these records.