Tech Forum

All our new move-ins are verified by Priesthood leaders who visit the address of record. They encounter more than a few who do not live at the address and did not live at the address the last time they were sent there! Is there any way to make the "Address Unknown" move-out permanent after all the required research has been done?

dougcoates wrote:All our new move-ins are verified by Priesthood leaders who visit the address of record. They encounter more than a few who do not live at the address and did not live at the address the last time they were sent there! Is there any way to make the "Address Unknown" move-out permanent after all the required research has been done?

When you move the record out, you will be asked a question "Is the new address known?" If you answer "No" then you have to confirm that the bishop or branch president has approved the move with no address. Then you will see a Notes field where you can enter any helpful information. In that field, describe what you have done to check out the address, and explain that you have no further information. That should stop the record from coming back.

We always include former address, e. g.
Letter to address, 1111 Smith St, Anywhere {Postal Abbreviation for State} Zip Code, returned by USPS. "Returned - Can Not Forward". NFI (No Further Information)

We are aware that during a visit to a specific address by HT, VT or "Bp-ric rep" those who respond to our queries might not be telling us the truth.
The very member we're looking for might be standing in front of us and telling us that no such person lives at their address.
In this case, HQ, SLC "Address Unknown Department" (AUD) might justifyable be returning a copy of MR to our ward.
I often check, on-line, with "Net Detective" or Intelius, and pay a few bucks, just to increase my chances of correctly re-assigning a copy of a member's record to AUD.
Sending ward activity announcements by mailing "registered" letters with "Signature" required, often confirms existance or absence of a member at a specific address.
Don't use envelopes with "Bishop's" address and Church logo. Seeing such
envelopes, some "seldom seen" members won't agree to sign and receive.

This suggests creating a "Custom Member Field", such as "Response to HT VT". We include within such a field, "Date" "Source, i. e. HT VT, Bp-ric, etc." "Response", rather than "Do not contact", we use "Postal Contact Only" and add to MR data field, "Household telephone", "MailOnly".

dougcoates wrote:All our new move-ins are verified by Priesthood leaders who visit the address of record. They encounter more than a few who do not live at the address and did not live at the address the last time they were sent there! Is there any way to make the "Address Unknown" move-out permanent after all the required research has been done?

H. Forth wrote:We are aware that during a visit to a specific address by HT, VT or "Bp-ric rep" those who respond to our queries might not be telling us the truth.
The very member we're looking for might be standing in front of us and telling us that no such person lives at their address.

Once, I had a new move-in member present me with his IOS printed from his last ward when he moved, and he requested I transfer his records to our ward. If only everyone did that!

As you know, when a record is transferred into your ward, the addresses from the previous ward could originate from a variety of sources- and may have gone through many people before finding the membership clerk who transferred the record. And the "less active" the member, the "less accurate" the address seems to be.

I tend to agree with H. Forth that if a record keeps coming back, there is some reason for it.

As a last ditch effort, I like to check online whitepages.com, spokeo.com, zabasearch.com, intelius.com, whoozy.com, anywho.com, whowhere.com and maps.google.com for missing members before sending their record to the AUD "lost members" department. It takes some time, but I often can find the member and avoid having them go into limbo.

For those of you who use some of the "pay" services, do you find that the information is reasonably current?

I have about 30 members that I know have moved and would like to find a good address for them. I just don't want to pay a fee for junk info. I was using Integrascan that was working okay in the free mode but I must have over-used it as I don't get addresses anymore, just a page asking for money. I will happily pay for a month of access if I know I will get what I need.

I'd really like to get some feedback on your experiences.

I do have a couple of anecdotes that illustrate some of the problems:

Had an inactive sister that the Relief Society would send letters to. They would come back as undeliverable with no forwarding address. So I sent the records to "address unknown". They would come back in about a month. I'd send them back to SLC, and get them back in a month. After playing this game for a while, I put a rather curt note in the comments block saying she really didn't live there. At that point I got an email back saying she did live there but did not receive any mail at that address. The RS Pres. went to check and sure enough, she did live there. So, the mail trick is not always a sure thing.

Another dear sister had a son (near 40 years old) and HQ would send his records to us since we had his mother. I'd send them back saying he didn't live there and a few months would pass before they were back again. I knew his situation and finally sent an email to SLC saying that he was a traveling nurse and would rarely be in one location for more than a few months. I asked that they put a hold on his record until a unit actually asked for it. That resolved the problem. My suspicion is that somewhere he had a record that gave his mother's address as his permanent address and that was what the Church was picking up on.

idjeeper wrote:My suspicion is that somewhere he had a record that gave his mother's address as his permanent address and that was what the Church was picking up on.

And given that he travels so much, that's probably the correct thing to do. The principle is "the unit that can best serve his needs". Address Unknown doesn't do that.

We don't use the fee services, all those I listed above are free. I've not seen any difference in the quality of information between free and fee, you need to take all of it with a grain of salt.