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Introduction
A History of
the Making of the Early Latter-day Saints Database
This database is the
combination of efforts of the Land and Records Office in
the Illinois Nauvoo Mission and the Pioneer Research
Group in Winter Quarters. The Land and Records Office
started working on the database in 1987 and have been
collecting and adding information since then. A
missionary couple (Don and Diane Snow) had the
assignment in the Illinois Nauvoo Mission of preparing
the PAF file for posting on the Internet. The original
emphasis of the Land and Records Office was on the
Nauvoo period (1839-1846), but it now includes
Latter-day Saints from 1829 up to the Utah period
(1868).
The
Pioneer Research Group based in the Winter Quarters
(Omaha, Nebraska) and Kanesville (Council Bluffs, Iowa)
are gathering the names of pioneers who lived in the
more than 90 settlements of Latter-day Saints who were
in the Middle Missouri Valley and across the state of
Iowa during the years of 1846
–
1868. Their emphasis began with the gathering of names
of members of the Iowa Branches, Winter Quarters Wards
and those buried in the Winter Quarters Cemetery but not
limited to that specific time period or area.
The
names in the database are mostly early Latter-day
Saints. Where their parents’
information was available it is included. Families are
linked together as well. We know it isn't complete and
we will continue to correct and add to it. We also
know, realistically, that absolute completeness and
accuracy is impossible in a project of this magnitude.
Still, we feel this is a major help to historians and
family historians.
The usual custom we have
followed for old LDS locations is to show the old name
with the current name in parentheses, e.g. Kanesville
(Council Bluffs), Pottawattamie, Iowa, USA, and Zenos
(Mesa), Maricopa, Arizona, USA. The counties we have
listed are usually the current counties, but we have
also mentioned variant locations and spellings in the
notes. We have felt that where the place is actually
located and where the records might be found override
other considerations. Besides the places, we have also
made uniform some of the names since spelling wasn't
emphasized in those years and different spellings were
sometimes used for the same person. The Next Generation
software that is used to form the web pages for this
data has a Soundex search that may help in finding
people with variant surname spellings. If you can't
find your ancestor and you think he should be here, you
might want to try variant spellings yourself. The Next
Generation software program also allows wild card
searches, e.g. John* picks up Johnson, Johnston,
Johnsen, and other variants.
We have converted most of
the sources that were stored in the notes into real
genealogical source citations with the intention of
eventually having notes only for items of biographical,
research, and general interest. At the present time we
have left the sources in the notes, even though we have
extracted most of them into real source citations. We
have also developed a way to include active Internet
links in sources and notes. In order for you to obtain
source documents, we have tried to list a repository for
each source, e.g. the Family History Library, but many
can be found in multiple locations.
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Corrections,
Additions, etc.
How to submit
information to the database.
We appreciate your help in
improving the database. For corrections and additions,
please send us a GEDCOM file with the correct data that
includes information about primary sources, i.e. original sources,
so that it can be checked and added to the database. If
you have journals, photographs, etc. electronic versions
would be helpful. Send these items to
pioneer-research-group@cox.net
Tips On Searching
How to search our database.
The
Searching capabilities are very extensive. Click on the
down arrow next to the item you are interested on
searching. The options for most names and places are:
Contains, Equals, Starts with, Ends with, Soundex of and
Metaphone of. The options for dates are: equals, +/- 2
years from, +/- 10 years from, less than, greater than,
less than or equal to, greater than or equal to.
The
Soundex search may help in finding people with variant
surname spellings. If you can't find your ancestor and
you think they should be here, you might want to try
variant spellings yourself. Try entering a
portion of the surname. Last name
“Starts
with”
searches, e.g. John picks up Johnson, Johnston, Johnsen,
and other variants.
By searching birth, death and burial places the program
can be used to find families and ancestors of early
Latter-day Saints and to give fairly accurate answers to
such questions as: "Who was born in Nauvoo?", "Who is
buried in the Old Nauvoo Burial Grounds?", and even "Who
was killed in the Haun's Mill Massacre?"
Click
on the
“Click
to display”
box under Other Events to see additional events that can
be searched. If an ancestor lived in a certain
settlement search the Residence event place to see the
people who lived in that settlement.
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