Find ancestors on the IGI: Difference between revisions

''[[Pacific Island Guide to Family History Research|Pacific Island Guide&nbsp;]] &gt; Step 8. Find ancestors on the IGI''<br>  

''Note: The information in this section will become outdated when the Church’s new Unified System is in place. As parts of the new system come up, we will be advised through the Internet site at www.familysearch.org.''  

To access ''temple ordinanc''e information for deceased persons (ordinance performed, date of ordinance, temple of ordinance) Church members must register on the family history web site,''[http://www.familysearch.org www.familysearch.org].'' See your ward clerk first, so you can provide at the time you register the ''date you were confirmed'' a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and your Church membership number.  

Because of differences in the way islanders and Europeans kept track of names, dates, places, and life events, it can be especially challenging to find island ancestors’ names in the ''IGI. ''The following are some situations that might occur as we search the ''IGI,'' along with some suggestions for remedies.  

Since the languages of the islands were not written until the mid 1800s, spelling was not standardized. Thus, the name ''Te Aroahenui ''may be spelled ''Tearoahenui'' or ''Te-aroahenui ''or ''Aroahenui'' or ''Te-aroa-henui ''or ''Te aroa henui''. TempleReady can check names in the''IGI ''as exact spellings or as standardized spellings. If we choose standardized spellings, the''IGI ''will drop the spaces and change hyphens to spaces. It will keep the first syllable of the name and sort on it. Thus, ''Te Aroa Henui ''becomes ''Te,'' which is not helpful in finding duplicates. In summary, if someone else submitted our ancestor’s name for temple work, but spelled the name differently, TempleReady may not find our version in the ''IGI.<br>''  

Anciently, Polynesians were identified by only one name. Later, they began adding surnames. Some people were also given an honorary name by which they were known. Thus, it is possible that our ancestor was known by more than one name, any or all of which may be in the ''IGI. ''For instance, the name ''Tangata Tevita Niumeitolu Olakepa ''could have been submitted as ''Tangata,'' as ''Tangata Niumeitolu'', as ''Tangata Olakepa'', as ''Tangata Tevita Niumeitolu ''or as ''Tangata Tevita Niumeitolu Olakepa. ''<br>  

To remedy this, we should make sure to select the ''World Miscellaneous'' region as our region and ''All Miscellaneous Countries'' as the country. Also search the ''Pacific Island'' region for each name when manually searching the ''IGI''. For Hawaiian ancestors, we should try using the ''United States'' as the region. <i>If our ancestor had a surname, we can use the Internet site of</i> www.familysearch.org and choose a ''generic'' search. All regions of the ''IGI'' as well as ''Ancestral File'' and some other Internet sites will be searched. If our ancestor had only one name, this generic search is not available. The computer will ask us for a surname, and if we cannot supply one, the search will not be made.

When we put our PAF diskette into TempleReady, we can select the ''Update Records ''option. The computer program will add to our files the ordinance information that matches the names and dates for ancestors on our records. We can get better results by selecting families rather than individuals.<br>