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children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:00 am
by Kimasech
My ex-husband recently transferred my four children's membership records to his ward where he lives. I was not notified of the transfer and have had the kids records with me in my ward since the separation 4 yrs ago. We have joint custody one week on/one week off.
What is the policy on where kids records reside in this situation? I was told usually the kids records would reside with the mother.

I'm not trying to be petty about it, I just don't understand this recent request.
To be clear, both of us struggle with attending church regularly so I am not sure what the benefit could be by transferring their records to his ward.

Re: children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 3:12 am
by russellhltn
If there is a policy, I'm not finding it. Currently the church doesn't really have a good way of dealing with joint custody. There is only one record and it can only reside in one ward. Which means one ward doesn't have the record. The on-line tools doesn't support adding a record, so they won't be listed in the primary rolls of one ward.

I'd think this is something the two bishops need to discuss and figure out how to handle it.

Re: children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 9:28 am
by scgallafent
Membership records should be kept in the ward where the member lives. In this case, where the children effectively live in two wards, the membership records should be kept in the ward which can best meet the needs of the children. That is something that should be determined by the parents and the two bishops involved. There is no policy that I know of that specifies where the children's records should reside.

Re: children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:34 am
by contadmelo
For parents with joint custody, Church membership records should be tied to both parents. I hate that membership records can only be with one parent. It's unfair and extremely frustrating.

Re: children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 5:15 am
by eblood66
There are multiple factors involved here. No matter what unit the membership record is in, it is still tied to both parents. Both parents show on the child's record and the children show on the parents records. This is true even when the child is an adult and moved away.

But it's also true that the membership record has to be in only one unit. There has to be just one bishop who has ecclesiastical responsibility for the children. That is the bishop responsible for interviews and recommends.

But out-of-unit records can be created in the other unit. Out of unit records allow the youth to show up on rolls and other leadership lists. I think they show up in LDS Tools too. I don't think they show up in the Directory on lds.org but that's because the directory hasn't had any code updates since before out-of-unit records could be created in this way and therefore doesn't know how to handle them. At some point it will probably be updated.

Re: children of divorced parents with joint custody

Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:08 am
by russellhltn
contadmelo wrote:I hate that membership records can only be with one parent. It's unfair and extremely frustrating.
On the other hand, I doubt if joint custody exists in the eternities.