Tech Forum

I was recently called as the Ward Clerk and have been going through membership info and have had a lot to update that was either not accomplished by the previous Ward Clerk, or was entered inaccurately.

Anyway, I found a child that was baptized months ago where the ordinance was never recorded in MLS. I have the info on who performed the baptism and confirmation and the date these were done, however, that person is not a member of our ward.

Does anyone know how to enter the ordinance in MLS?

Its OK if the person preforming the ordinance is not in your ward. All you do is type in the persons information.

All I have is the full name of the person performing the ordinance. Will I need any other information?

You will need priesthood for sure, and maybe birth date. If the same person did not do both the Baptism and conformation you will need the other persons information as well, and who did what.

Gary_Miller wrote: ... and maybe birth date.

That is not required. But it is a field provided on the ordinance page.

jdlessley wrote:

Gary_Miller wrote: ... and maybe birth date.

That is not required. But it is a field provided on the ordinance page.

Is it required to record the name of the person performing the ordinance at all? I have encountered many records that either do not have the name of the "baptizer" or "confirmer" recorded or that do not have the "ordainer" (name/priesthood/MRN/birthdate) listed at all. Seems that almost all convert baptism records come to us that way although the yellow sheets from the missionaries do contain sufficient information to populate the info for the person performing the ordinance.

Mainly wondering if we should be going back and filling out the names of the people that baptized and/or confirmed those for whom we have records in our ward?

Its required to record the record. While it may not show up in MLS or on the member print out. They are recorded in the churches records in Church Headquarters. Not everything on a members record is viewable in MLS.

Gary_Miller wrote:Its required to record the record. While it may not show up in MLS or on the member print out. They are recorded in the churches records in Church Headquarters. Not everything on a members record is viewable in MLS.

Appreciate the response. It makes sense that recording all the info would be required at the "point of entry" if you will. But I am unclear whether we should take on a blanket effort to gather all the info for those who are missing this info given the chances of getting incorrect info and also the possibility that it may be an uneasy conversation where the person who baptized them may have since lost good standing in the Church (from other discussions, I am led to believe that the ordinance is valid as long as it was done and overseen by proper authority and the date was recorded even if the person's name who performed the ordinance is missing). I would hope that the info is recorded at Church headquarters, however I am struggling somewhat to reconcile this with the fact that I can enter the "baptizer" and "confirmer" (or the "ordainer" in cases of ordination) and the information *does* appear in MLS afterwards. Is it possible that when the record is first being created (such as by the mission/stake), the info is in fact entered and recorded at HQ but not visible to me at the ward level, and then if I enter/update the info at the ward level, it updates at HQ but then also becomes visible to me at the ward level? Or if it was entered and recorded at the HQ level, would I necessarily have visibility into the info? Any further light that can be shed on how this works and also whether we should engage a ward-level effort (local decision?) to add the missing names would be much appreciated.

Gary_Miller wrote:They are recorded in the churches records in Church Headquarters.

What is your source on that? As far as I know that information is not retained at CHQ. The information needs to be entered when recording a baptism so that the certificate can be printed. And it's retained in the local MLS in case the certificate needs to be reprinted but I don't believe it gets transferred out of the local MLS.

christianjacobsen wrote:Any further light that can be shed on how this works and also whether we should engage a ward-level effort (local decision?) to add the missing names would be much appreciated.

I've never seen any direction that local units should try to gather that information. And I don't think that information is retained at CHQ so such an effort would probably be wasted. But even if CHQ does have that information, I think if they wanted local units to obtain missing data or correct it they would make it visible in either MLS or LCR.

Note that the printed membership records and individual ordinance summaries don't include the name of who performed the baptism or confirmation even if it is in the local MLS.