FamilySearch batch numbers return

FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org) recently reinvented its website, and in the process annoyed just about everyone who believed in the mantra "If it isn't broken, don't fix it". One of the biggest complaints from many was the removal of the batch number field from the original version of the website, which was handy if you wished to search within a parish for all occurrences of a particular surname. You simply typed in the surname, place and batch number, and then clicked search and voila.

Thankfully FamilySearch has listened and has now reinstated the batch number field into the new version of the site. In fact clicking on the batch number, presented as a hyperlink, provides a listing of everyone's record photographed for that batch, which could be useful if you simply wanted to start at the surnames beginning with an A and then work your way through!

Hugh Wallis's IGI batch numbers site at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm allows you to search for the relevant batch number for a parish in Scotland (and elsewhere), and to perform a search from there, with the results linked to the results page of old FamilySearch, still temporarily available. Whether in time this will be redirected to the new site is not known, but at least the site is no longer in danger of going redundant in identifying relevant batch numbers for online use. The Scots Origins website (http://www.origins.net/SOWelcome.aspx) also has a similar search function, allowing you to look for baptism and marriages at the parish level, using the batch numbers, but in this case with the numbers hidden and only the parishes identified by name. Again, this is directing searches to results returned on the old site, and I have no knowledge as to whether that in time will also be redirected to the new FamilySearch site also.

(With thanks to Peter Calver's Lost Cousins newsletter)

Chris