The LDS IGI index is well know on microfiche at many genealogy records centres and is available online at familysearch. However it is a record of church ordnances which happens to contain records of births and marriages, and this can lead to misunderstandings, particularly when used by people who use it a source of "definitive" information rather than an incomplete index which was not designed for genealogists. Rather than continue to issue updates to the original index the LDS are indexing registers, etc., and releasing the data on Vital Records Index CD's which may be brought from them at a very reasonable price.

The first edition of the British Isles Vital Records Index contained 5 million births, christenings and marriages from all over the British Isles. The coverage was very uneven - with some counties hardly mentioned.  While there are some old registers many are from the 19th century, which was not so well covered by the IGI. However it should never be assumed that the coverage of the combined IGI and VRI indexes is complete. The index does not include information on the registers such as the occupation of the father and the address (post 1812) and there may be other information on the register which is not recorded. It is therefore important to check the microfilm of the registers to confirm and possibly expand the index entry.

In 2002 a new 16 CD version has been issued, with many more names, and a list of its contents by county is available at:

http://www.genoot.com/downloads/BVRI2/index.html

If you click on the numbers alongside each county name you get the parishes covered for that county (in Acrobat format) together with the years covered. A check shows that the coverage of Hertfordshire is a significant improvement over the original CDs and there are 275,730 births and christenings and 66,597 marriages for the county.

It is likely that future versions will be issued as even bigger CD sets.

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As an example of the information contained the following is the results of a search for the children of George Robarts born in Hertfordshire. His wife was the daughter of Dolphin Smith, and the first child (name mispelt in the index) was named after his grandfather.

Gender: Male
Christening Date: 8 Oct 1882     Recorded in: Ayot, Hertfordshire, England
Collection: St Peter
Father: George Langton ROBARTS
Mother: Elizabeth
Source: FHL Film 991304     Dates: 1880 - 1896

Gender: Female
Christening Date: 8 Oct 1882     Recorded in: Ayot, Hertfordshire, England
Collection: St Peter
Father: George Langton ROBARTS
Mother: Elizabeth
Source: FHL Film 991304     Dates: 1880 - 1896

Gender: Female
Christening Date: 8 Oct 1882     Recorded in: Ayot, Hertfordshire, England
Collection: St Peter
Father: George Langton ROBARTS
Mother: Elizabeth
Source: FHL Film 991304     Dates: 1880 - 1896

Gender: Male
Christening Date: 8 Oct 1882     Recorded in: Ayot, Hertfordshire, England
Collection: St Peter
Father: George Langton ROBARTS
Mother: Elizabeth
Source: FHL Film 991304     Dates: 1880 - 1896

Gender: Male
Birth Date: 25 Jun 1883
Christening Date: 19 Oct 1883     Recorded in: North Mimms, Hertfordshire, England
Father: George Laughton ROBARTS
Mother: Elizabeth
Source: FHL Film 991388     Dates: 1876 - 1901

Page updated September 2006