Here are my full instructions, as promised:
www.familysearch.org

Log onto the website and proceed to:
- Search tab (at top of page)
- Then click on International Genealogy Index (IGI) on the lefthand side

There are various ways of undertaking your searches from now on. But try this way first (you can always retrace your steps):

- Complete the first and last name fields (do not enter anything into parents' fields). Don't enter anything in the Spouse field just yet.
- Leave the field set at All and enter the date of birth and in the Year and for the Year Range field, click on + or - 20 years. You may expect to see a birth or marriage within this range. However, if the marriage doesn't show up (ie if they were, say, 30 when they married) you will need to add on a few years to the Year field.

You may feel tempted to complete all the fields but you will be more likely to discover more names if you just concentrate on the person you are looking for, to start off with anyway.

- Then complete the other field boxes: region, country, county and click on Search.

This will take you to a list of names and you will discover for yourself lots of variances. For example: If the name appears in capital letters, it will probably only contain the name of the parents and no further information. But it will probably contain a Batch No. (bottom left of screen); this is important for use later. If the name appears in lowercase letters you will probably find a lot more information on the page, such as date of birth and/or baptism, spouse, (and if you click on family) names and details of children. This is how you can build up your family tree. Try clicking on parents' names as sometimes their details are recorded too.

(Some Batch Nos. are for births only or marriages only and I think it works out something like: Those starting with C = children's names; M = marriages and P = parents but I'm not sure; it is just something I assumed.)

Returning to Batch Nos., if you click on the Batch No. it will return you to the original search screen. Just enter the surname and no further details (other than region) and it will take you to a family page. Someone told me that all the people listed are your relatives, all entered in the Parish Records on a particular page. This will also help you to build your family tree but it is not always clear where they fit into your tree and you may need to do a lot of printing off and writing. (I usually print the Batch page off and write beside each name, the name of the parents; then you can see brothers and sisters to which parents.)

Once you have undertaken the simple search as above, you can then move on to others, such as returning to original search page and instead of clicking on the lefthand side on the IGI, you can click on All Resources which may produce the same information or additional. You can also, on the IGI, complete all the fields but sometimes this shows up the wrong person. (You could enter the parents's names and it will produce your ancestor and another, indicating they both had the same parents but this isn't necessarily correct.) It is worth investigating but don't take it as read!

You can also just type in the surname but be prepared to scroll through many pages! You can type in first name and surname and leave all the other fields blank (or any variations).

Happy Researching! Good Luck! Isabel