Tech Forum

There is a mother in our ward who was a single mother and has recently married. She has a son that was not born into the church. The son shows up as her son in MLS, but for whatever reason does not appear when doing an individual search. He is primary age and does not show up in the primary roster, and when I try to add him manually his name does not appear in the list of children in the ward (probably because he's technically not part of the ward....at least according to the MLS). Does anyone know why he isn't showing up in the ward list? How can I fix this?

Just because he is listed as her child doesn't mean his records are in your ward (or that he even has a membership record). If he is under 8 years old, you can create a membership record for him and he will be a member of record. If he is older than that, you could create a nonmember record.

I bet he doesn't have a membership record. I'll create one for him and then try adding him to the primary. Thanks for your help!

This is a discussion with your bishopric and ward Clerk. To talk about this "For statistical and reporting purposes" only:

To show up in your ward's MLS, we must have a record "in your ward."

• We become "members of record" after several events, (described in the wiki here,) or we have our local ward create a "temporary" or "non-member" record. If none of these have been done, you will not find an individual in your MLS and thus you could not place them into classes.
• It is possible that a record has been created for the person in question, but it is held by another ward or has somehow been separated from the mother. If your ward does not "hold" a copy of the record, you cannot place them into classes.

What I would do: (others may differ)

1. I would first make sure no record exists at church headquarters by getting permission first from the parent, then the full name and birthdate of the son and contacting the membership department via MLS message. Some might advocate just putting in a record transfer request, but this can mess things up if the record is held in another unit for a reason you aren't told about, and your transfer request "yanks" it to your ward.
2. If it does not exist, discuss with ward leadership the possibility of making a permanent record if appropriate. See the Wiki file on Membership Record and Handbook 1: 13.6.2

(Clarification added later: I'll never advocate putting in a record transfer request "just to see" if one is out there. If one is, your bishop should call the bishop of the ward that currently holds the record and make a determination of how to proceed.)

kisaac wrote:

1. I would first make sure no record exists at church headquarters by getting permission first from the parent, then the full name and birthdate of the son and contacting the membership department via MLS message. Some might advocate just putting in a record transfer request, but this can mess things up if the record is held in another unit for a reason you aren't told about, and your transfer request "yanks" it to your ward.
2. If it does not exist, discuss with ward leadership the possibility of making a permanent record if appropriate. See the Wiki file on Membership Record and Handbook 1: 13.6.2

That's my suggestion. Assuming he's not yet 8 years old, and you can get the necessary permissions, I'd look into making a child of record rather then going the non-member/temporary record route. I think it will work out better in the long run.