Re: Navigating the IGI

["v.h.villarreal" <raices_regias@...>]

Hello Emily,

Thanks for sharing.  I have learned practically all of the tricks of
searching the IGI, including the one you wish to know:  the wildcard.
(%).  It works fine in the First Name and Last Name fields.  But don't
tell anyone that I told you!!

The best way to search the IGI is by batch number.  The problem is you
first need to build your own database of available batch numbers for
the locality that you're searching.

Un Saludo Cordial
Victor



--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "Emilie Garcia" <auntyemfaustus@h...>
wrote:
> Recently I sat down after a long time away from browsing the
FamilySearchcom's IGI database, and after many years of searching, I
found three more generations back on my father's side who were from
Tepetongo, Zacatecas, and all in one sitting.  I had tried looking for
these people for years, but had no luck, and they were there all the
time. I guess the other day their spirits were with me (I do beseech
them to show themselves), and they wanted to be found.  It is funny
that sometimes I can find people in the IGI, for myself and others,
and sometimes I can't.  
> 
> Shortly after learning my way around the IGI, I started really
digging up stuff.  By trial and error, and thinking out of the box, I
discovered ways to locate my Mexican ancestors in the IGI.  I guess by
studying the naming customs in Mexico and the way the transcribers
think, I developed a sense of how they may be listed.  I think it is
George Ryskamp that has an article somewhere that I recently read on
how to navigate the IGI for ancestors in Mexico, and the process is
pretty much what I developed for myself, but he couldn't list every
clue in detail.  As usual, I had to learn the hard way before I found
his article.   
> 
> I don't know how to explain my system, but it works most of the
time.  How I have lapses sometimes is something I can't explain.  I
have to be in the right frame of mind, I guess; I just get a feeling
that this is the time I will find something.  Maybe the brain needs to
refresh itself or something.  My husband sometimes asks me why I stay
so late on the computer some days, and the other day I told him that I
was on a roll on the IGI and couldn't quit since I was searching a
thread that contained thousands of people, making me go from one page
to the next, and if I dropped the thread, I would not be able to go
back to that series in the IGI since I could not reconstruct how I
found it in the first place.  Sometimes I go through lists of
thousands to find one ancestor, but it is worth it, since the film
number and place found leads me to other generations and places, etc.
That is how I was able to help Helyn years ago and recently when she
couldn't find someone in the IGI that I was able to find with my system.
> 
> One thing I can explain is that I found that there seemed to be a
naming tradition in Mexico where people were given the name of a
grandparent or great-uncle, etc.  Then people married into the same
families over and over through the generations.  Then too, men married
several times and their children used the surnames of their
step-mothers.  Also, for some reason, I realized that some letters are
interchangeable in surnames.  Also, most people had several first
names not known to me so the IGI will not at first find them under the
only names by which they were later known.  For instance, I just found
my Suriano ancestors.  Their name is sometimes spelled Zuriano,
Soriano, and Sariano.   
> 
> The one person I knew about was Teodosa Flores (my
great-great-grandmother, the mother of my great-grandmother Rafaela
Tinajero), but I noticed that sometimes she was listed as Teodosia or
Theodosia Felix and sometimes Suriano.  I wondered where the Felix 
and Suriano came in, and recently I found her parents, Jose Maria
Flores and Guadalupe Suriano.  Aha!  That led me to Guadalupe
Suriano's parents, Marcelo Suriano and Ma. Francisca Munos, and to
Marcelo's parents, Paulin Suriano and Regina (surname not listed).  I
am anxious to send for these films and see where they lead me. Those
last are my ggggg-grandparents who lived in the early 1700's!  I
believe that Jose Maria Flores had a second wife surnamed Felix and
his children from the first marriage used her surname also.   
> 
> Other people I have found lately are my Olague ancestors.  Pedro
Olague was Rafaela's husband, his parents were Santiago Olague and
Eduviges Suriano, Santiago's parents were Jose Balentin Olague and
Maria Josefa de Lucio.  Eduviges' parents were Julian Suriano ad
Rafaela Quijas.  The surnames Suriano and De Lucio sound Italian to
me.  Quijas is a name I have never heard before.  Anyone have those
names in their tree?  I could not find Edubiges for the longest time,
and come to find out, she is in the IGI as Maria Eduvije Sariano!  Who
knew?   
> 
> So, try reading the article (I think it is by George Ryskamp) on
searching the IGI for Mexicans.  It might help you, but then again,
like me, you might have to learn it the hard way like I did, by trial
and error, using your intuition. Use all the known paternal and
maternal surnames together, paternal surname first together with
maternal surname, in different combinations and possible spellings. 
And be patient.  You sometimes stumble on a thread that contains
thousands of names, but the "Find on this Page" function takes you to
the locale quickly on each page so you don't have to look at each and
every one if they are not in your geographical search area.  (Using
advanced search for a geographical area doesn't always find things and
it is best not to use "exact spelling"  except when using two surnames
together).  However, the IGI only brings up the first 5000 names in a
series when using just one surname and not specifying "exact
spelling".  There are no shortcuts, really.  When you reach that
number there is a message that comes up informing you that the
database is unable to download more names than that.   GRRRR.  Just
when I was about to find that elusive Jose *  Garcia *, (ha, ha).  I
wish the IGI could handle wild cards, but I guess it can't, can it?  I
know Ancestry.com databases can handle wild cards, no?
> 
> Emilie Garcia
> Port Orchard, WA.