Tech Forum

There is a member of my ward who had a child that passed away at an early age long ago. This member noticed on his individual ordinance summary that under the section titled "All Children of [name of member]", all of his children were listed except the one that passed away. He's wondering if there's a way to have all of his children listed there because, after all, the title doesn't say "all living children"; it says "all children").

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Unless someone has experience in this situation, I"d call Local Unit Support. They might clarify if indeed the child is "in the system" and simply not showing because of the death. They could also guide you though how to handle the situation.

RussellHltn wrote:Unless someone has experience in this situation, I"d call Local Unit Support. They might clarify if indeed the child is "in the system" and simply not showing because of the death. They could also guide you though how to handle the situation.

I know of at least one family in my ward with a child who passed away and that child does show on their IOS. However, it's possible the church has a record of the child but the record is not correctly linked to the parents. One way to check would for the parents to go to new.familysearch.org and search for the child.

However, either way you'll probably have to call LUS to get the record created or to link it up. But the more information you have when you call the better.

This happened to me: Our son passed away in 2008; we made sure to create a record in our ward, and I received a printed IOS for him at that time. We moved and didn't think about it for a few years. Then, I was called as membership clerk in a different ward; after serving as a clerk for several months, I noticed our son wasn't listed on my IOS. I investigated the issue, and discovered that, yes, all children should appear on the IOS. Further, it was a simple matter to add the child. I simply created a new child of record and marked that the child was deceased. Our son now appears on my IOS.

Regarding new.familysearch.org, we added our son there within weeks of his passing, so it was separate from the Church membership record. I admit that there is a possibility that I created a duplicate record of my son; however, I'm not concerned because I know that we have kept a "faithful record" (D&C 128:9).

For the future, I believe the following describes the ideal process:

1. The death is recorded in MLS and transmitted to the administration office (Salt Lake for USA and Canada)
2. The deceased child is automatically added to new.familysearch.org and linked to the (living) parents.

I don't know if the current system is designed that way or not. Is there anyone from MLS development that can confirm or deny the intended function of MLS passing off data to new.familysearch.org in this situation?

that is the way it worked for my gradson. Membership passed it to nFS and he appeared in our sons family.

jcarroll wrote:we made sure to create a record in our ward, and I received a printed IOS for him at that time. We moved and didn't think about it for a few years. [...]I simply created a new child of record and marked that the child was deceased. [...] I admit that there is a possibility that I created a duplicate record of my son; however, I'm not concerned because I know that we have kept a "faithful record" (D&C 128:9).

First of all, from the facts given, I believe you've created a duplicate membership record. I'm not sure why he doesn't appear in your IOS. I can only guess that he wasn't properly linked to you at that time. As far as a "faithful record" I have to disagree. Faithful records do not leave a duplicate hanging out there somewhere. Since you have a IOS for him, something must have happened. I'd suggest calling Local Unit Support and see if you can locate that old record and have it combined with the current one. Otherwise, someone else is going to have to take care of it down the road.

jcarroll wrote:Regarding new.familysearch.org, we added our son there within weeks of his passing, so it was separate from the Church membership record.

Yes, that's probably yet another duplicate. At some point that child will come over from the membership side. So you'll need to keep an eye out for that and combine it when it happens.

@RussellHltn,

Thank you for your advice. Per this wiki article, I have emailed mlssupport@ldschurch.org and hope to find and resolve any duplicate records I have created.

Humbly,
Brother Carroll

I have a similar situation but with a differrent question... Two different families noted that adult children listed on their MLS record had died several years ago. Is there a place to note this on the record?

zaneclark wrote:I have a similar situation but with a differrent question... Two different families noted that adult children listed on their MLS record had died several years ago. Is there a place to note this on the record?

Are the children members?

RussellHltn wrote:Are the children members?

Yes, they are members.... Forgot to mention that...