Presenter: Carol Hansen Devine, M.A. Ed. Family History Consultant Desert Hills Ward, West Richland, WA Taming the FamilySearch Goliath Class 7: LDS Family Ordinances Recorded 12 Jan 2017
Class 6 covered: 1. Two family relationships to prove with source records 2. Find and attach scanned records in Family Tree 3. Solutions to challenges in attaching records 4. Intro to FindaRecord.com In Class 7 (this class), we: 1. Review the purpose of LDS family ordinances 2. Find out who can reserve them, and when 3. Strategies to find ancestors not yet offered the ordinances 4. Print cards; manage completion of many ancestors work
Purpose of LDS Family Ordinances Our Father in Heaven: Intended families to be together for eternity. Loves all his children equally. Does not penalize people who died never having had the opportunity to accept His gospel and the atonement of his Son, Jesus Christ. We the living: Are called to research our deceased ancestors, and document their lives and family relationships. (Malachi 4:5-6) Can make sacred family ordinances now available to us by revelation and restored authority available to our deceased ancestors as well. Our deceased ancestors: Now reside in a world of spirits awaiting the resurrection. There they are being taught, and can repent and accept Jesus Christ as savior. Retain their free agency. They decide whether or not to accept the sealing family ordinances we make available to them.
For whom can we reserve family ordinances? Deceased ancestors whose ordinances we can reserve: Are related to us by birth, marriage or adoption, or Are probable relatives residing in proximity to our family whose connection to them has not yet been conclusively proven through records. We can also complete family ordinances for close family friends who, while living, authorized us to complete the work after their death. Get the permission in writing and be prepared to provide it on request. We are prohibited by LDS Church policy from completing family ordinances for anyone else. However, we can certainly document their lives and families in FamilyTree with loving care and leave the information for their descendants to find in the future.
110 Year Rule Out of respect for closest living relatives, we are required to wait 110 years after a deceased person s birth to reserve and complete family ordinances for them unless: You have written consent of the person while they were alive that ordinances be completed on their behalf after death, or You have permission of the Closest Living Relative, or You ARE the Closest Living Relative. NOTE: Each spouse s ordinances are available only to Closest Living Relatives until both spouses have met the 110 Yr Rule. The Closest Living Relative can reserve remaining family ordinances for a deceased person one year and a day following the death. Closest Living Relative: An undivorced spouse, child, parent, or sibling of the deceased person, in that order. If the closest living relative says no, we must wait until either they die so we can ask the next closest living relative, or the 110 Year Rule expires. Permission should be obtained in writing, and be available to provide when the ordinances are reserved.
Finding Tool: Descendancy View (see class handout) Find existing ancestors whose work remains uncompleted Method: For each of your four major surnames, go back to the earliest direct ancestor for whom source records are provided. Coming down toward yourself, check each parent, their spouse, children, and children s families. Watch the icons on the left side of the page. You are searching for people whose family ordinances are not yet complete. Suggestion: Do not seal families whose two essential relationships have not been confirmed with provided records. Two Essential Relationships: These two people were a couple and this was their child.
Finding Tool: Person Summary Card Find adults with no parents or spouse and locate them Method: From the Person Page of each of your relatives born after 1850, click the name of each spouse and adult child one time. In their Person Summary Card, you are looking for dotted grey line boxes for SP (sealed to parents) and SS (sealed to spouse). Search for records to locate the parents or spouse of each person with a dotted line box. Can t answer your questions through FamilyTree? Jot down the Person s name and ID Number with intent to follow-up in Ancestry.com after Class 10.
Finding Tool: Personal 110 Year Rule list Focus on the decade that just opened up under the 110 Year Rule Method: Across the branches of your tree, focus on ancestors, their siblings and children born in the decade that recently became available for ordinance reservations under the 110 Year Rule. You are looking for ancestors whose ordinances have not been completed by their Closest Living Relatives. Example: This is 2016. Review ordinance status of each of your ancestors, their siblings and children born from 1895 to 1905. Suggestion: Begin keeping a list of people whose ordinances you want to complete if they aren t yet done when the 110 Year Rule expires for them.
Go sideways in your tree. Focus on one family at a time. Finding Tool: Vital Records Method: Going sideways, then up or down in your ancestral tree often leads you to family groups partially entered in FamilyTree. Assume you are this one family s best hope of getting their relationships right, their kids all found, and their family offered correct sealing ordinances. Find their records. The more you research, locate and extract records for these people, the more unsolved mysteries you will discover. Sealed or not, are the kids with the right parents? Spouses, spouses parents, and children of families are most easily located in state and Federal census records, from 1850 to 1880, and from 1900 to 1940.
Source: Census-Charts.com Enough U.S. population growth with available records in the period 1850 to 1940 to keep most of us busy with temple ordinances throughout our lifetimes 130 million 20 million
Reserve Family Ordinances and Print Temple Cards 1. Find a relative whose ordinances are not completed 2. Standardize name, dates, locations for the relative, his/her spouse & parents 3. Search for and merge duplicate persons 4. Ordinances still not complete? Then reserve them: If warned that possible duplicates exist, return to person page and evaluate them. If ordinances are still needed, return to Step 4.
1. Reserve the ordinance(s) 2. Select the person s name and press PRINT 3. Choose the ordinances to print and press CONTINUE 4. See the printing instructions and press CONTINUE 5. OPEN the pdf temple card sheet 6. Click the printer icon to print the sheet 7. Close the file folder tab for the pdf temple card sheet (Takes you to the Did It Print? message.) Overview of Process: Print a Temple Card x 8. Click YES to say it printed correctly. (Moves these ordinances from your Not Printed List to your Printed List in the reserved ordinances tab.) If the sheet did NOT print successfully, do not click NO. Instead, say YES and return to the reserved temple ordinances list. Return to, and repeat from Step 2. Ignore the warning message that you have already printed the card and should destroy the duplicate.
Print cards from the Ordinances Tab of the Person Page... Step-by-Step Guide: Print a Temple Card... or from your Temple Reservations List
See the pdf sheet displaying the temple cards. Print cards on white paper in portrait layout. You may see a printer icon, or need to right click the sheet to get the printer icon to display. When it has printed successfully, return to the previous screen using the tabs at the top of your display. If using Windows 8.1 or later, may need to click the upper left corner of the screen to leave this pdf and return to the previous screen.
Clicking yes moves the ordinances from your not printed list, to your printed list in the Temple Reservations page. Cut out the temple cards on the provided dotted lines. Measure one card to ensure they are 3-1/4 x 5 as required. If not the required size, adjust your printer settings. Then simply select and print the desired cards again from your temple ordinance reservations list, ignoring the warning about their having been printed before.
Using the FIND feature From the Reserved Family Ordinances screen Tools to help us complete ordinances in required sequence Click a name to see status of ordinances Click a name to see status of ordinances
2 Year Time Limit An LDS Church policy announced in 2014 gives the person holding a reservation two years to complete reserved family ordinances for a deceased person beginning with the reservation date. This policy is intended to: Discourage reserving more ordinance work than can be completed in a reasonable timeframe, and Free up uncompleted family ordinances reserved by a researcher who for any reason becomes unable to complete them timely. Diligent researchers can extend this time limit by: Unreserving and immediately re-reserving the remaining ordinances; Sharing the ordinances with the temple system and unsharing them when able to complete the ordinances in person; or Sharing the ordinances with family members and friends through a provided process. This restarts the 2-year clock.
The 2 Yr Limit does not pertain to ordinances that are awaiting completion within the temple system. OPTION: Send ordinances to the temples for completion (2 or 3 yrs.)
Pull family ordinances back from the temple system for your personal completion Only ordinances color coded coral orange can be pulled back from the temple system The 2 Year Limit to complete the unshared ordinances begins the day you unshare them. NOTE: If you share a person s ordinances with the temple system and them unshare them, they are added to your Not Printed List. Be sure to destroy any duplicate cards you are holding for the person.
OPTION: Invite a friend or family member to accept responsibility for specific reserved family ordinances Fill in the e-mail invitation form If they accept within 2 weeks, the name transfers from your family ordinances reservation list to theirs. The 2 Yr Limit clock starts ticking. If they do not accept, the name simply remains on your list for completion.
Covered in Class 7 1. Purpose of LDS family ordinances 2. LDS church rules limiting for whom we can reserve them 3. Tools and strategies to find ancestors for whom ordinances are not yet offered 4. Family Tree resources as project management tools Homework Assignment Before beginning Class 8, discover at least 3 people in your direct or extended Family Tree who have ordinances to reserve. Check for duplicates and merge them to avoid repeating ordinances. Reserve the ordinances. Print temple cards.
Our Next Class Fixing incorrect family relationships in Family Tree
Taming the FamilySearch Goliath Learn to use FamilySearch Family Tree with confidence and skill. Download the classes, and all class handouts, from www.tinyurl.com/taminggoliath This series of 9 classes was presented before a live audience and recorded between Nov 3, 2016 to Jan 26, 2017 by West Richland Stake, WA, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mike Goodmansen, Event Coordinator (509) 845-0044. Special thanks to Richland Family History Center, WA for generous support and use of classroom facilities and equipment.