Hello Joe,
The GEDs I have are really only my family trees and are a bit bare bones
and, unlike the wealth of detail on yours, have no background information.
What I do have are GEDs downloaded from the IGI containing Orgills and
Argyles for most counties of the British Isles, these files at the most
only show links to immediate parents/children or wives but are very useful
to show surname densities, and it's often possible to trace several
generations within adjacent parishes. I also have these files as DBF files
which is more useful as sorts can be done to highlight fields of interest,
for instance to find earliest births within an area of interest. If you
would like either or both let me know and I'll attach a copy to an email.
Well the IGI ( International Genealogical Index) is available on
microfiche and I believe sections of interest can be purchased from the FHC
(Family History Centres) of the LDS (Church of the Latterday Saints). The
IGI also exists spread over a number of CDs, I don't believe these are
available for purchase to private individuals and in any case a full set
would run to thousands of dollars.
The good news is that these can be viewed at FHCs throughout the world,
my nearest one is only a half hours drive away. What I have to do is to ring
the centre and book a PC for a two hour session, I turn up with a couple of
3.5" floppies and start copying the relevent information as GEDCOM files (
can be copied as ASCII files too), when I get home I can scan this info. at
leisure. The program to do the above and to use other facilities of the CDs
is menu driven and easy to use so I won't attempt to desribe the steps.
The bulk of the information concerning the British Isles has been
extracted from Parish Register originals and Bishops Transcripts. A lot of
later information has been submitted by members of the LDS church and I
feel that some of this may be a bit less than 100% accurate, for instance a
Joseph Argyle submitted data in the 1930's linking just about every Argyle
in Leicestershire to each other, this I believe is called the shotgun
approach. Another good example is your man Edward Orgill submitted by
someone as Edward Argyle, probably by the Argyles of Woods Green, Utah.
Part of the information shows a film number and the film may be ordered for
viewing, it will be a film of the Parish Register, Bishops Transcript etc.,
in Australia the fee is $6 dollars and it's available for wiewing for three
weeks, I'd guess in Salt Lake City it'd be available over the counter and
most likely free.
In addition to the IGI the US Social Security records are available, I
don't know if the 100 year rule applies. There's CDs available containing
an index of all manner of documents available on film; census data, history
of particular towns, etc., at the moment I'm waiting for a film containing
Board of Trade Records of Seaman's Certificates, hoping to find a bit more
about my Irish G.G. Grandfather. Other Cds contain family Geds submitted,
you'll find the Argyles of Woods Green listed arriving from Church Gresley via
Market Bosworth, also the related Orgill family.
Well I hope that's answered your questions OK and I'll sign off now.
All the Best, Vic