Tech Forum

Story time:
A couple in our ward divorced civilly 2 years ago. They are still sealed. She remarried out of the church, but consent was granted for the new husband's name to be recorded in mls. The former husband's record was sent to address unknown, as he is now AWOL. Months later, her record disappears, yet she remains an active member of our ward. I retrieved her record today through lds.org (great feature, by the way, except for the lag of a few hours in mls in recognizing that the record has been moved), but it had been reunited with the first husband. I decided to move the entire household to see what was going on, with the intent on punting his record once I was done making sense of it. I thought I'd have to terminate the marriage (again). As it turns out, they were not shown as married, and the new husband's name was actually shown as current spouse. For some reason, they still formed a household according to the church definition. This was beginning to turn into a strange reality show plot. I decided to remove the 1st husband to form a new household (and will send him back to address unknown). While looking into how to split the household (fortunately, not something I do often), I saw 2 new menu options under "Membership": "Resume Pending Household Records Move" and "Resume Pending Individual Records Move". I daren't click either, for fear they will steal my good members again. Does anyone know how to see just which records are slated to be pulled? Thanks,

-Jerry

I'm not seeing anything in the story where the divorce was recorded in MLS nor the sister's second marriage to a nonmember was recorded in MLS.

I also do not understand this statement:

zoomjer wrote:For some reason, they still formed a household according to the church definition.

Does this mean the first husband and the sister are in the same household? If so, what is the first husband's position in the household? And what do you mean it is according to the church definition? A divorced couple are not a part of the same household.

If the first marriage has been recorded in MLS and therefore in CMIS and the sister's second marriage to the nonmember is recorded in MLS and therefore in CMIS, yet the first husband is showing up in the sister's household and you cannot remove him from that household, then you may need to contact LUS to resolve the discrepancies.

To clarify: yes, I had recorded both the divorce and the civil marriage in mls prior to all of this.

And although they were divorced, when I requested the records of the sister, she had been re-linked to him and grouped into one household. I can split the household no problem, but I really want to know what those new menu items mean. And what are CMIS and LUS? Thanks.

-Jerry

zoomjer wrote:And what are CMIS and LUS?

CMIS is the Church Membership Information System.

LUS is Local Unit Support (LUS), i.e., the help desk.

I think you should start the process all over beginning with the divorce and moving of the record to the husbands new ward not the unknown file. Try and find out where the former husband lives. The sister may have the address if not its a good bet she can get it from one of their children.

After you have taken care of the divorce and moved the record, then record the new marriage information. While you should be able to make the changes and move at the same time I recommend doing it over a period of a few days just to give the system a chance to process the changes one at a time.

zoomjer wrote:I retrieved her record today through lds.org (great feature, by the way, except for the lag of a few hours in mls in recognizing that the record has been moved), but it had been reunited with the first husband.

Where are you looking when you see this? The on-line directory has some quirks that might be driving you crazy. I suggest you stick with the ward MLS until this this straightened out.

Is the husband's record in MLS? If not, then you are chasing a ghost.

I did all of the work in mls. I think the problem was that I didn't leave any time between recording the divorce and moving his records.

zoomjer wrote:I retrieved her record today through lds.org (great feature, by the way

What is the specific nature of this feature?

It is the ability to look someone up and have their membership records moved immediately into the ward, provided you have their order and last name and membership record number, or first and last name and birthdate and you can see the entire household before you even bring them over. The transfer is immediate, at least in the online directory, although it does take a bit of time for the records to show up in the mls software.