Tech Forum

I have a new member that just moved into our ward. She said she has been totally inactive for over 20 years and has just decided to come back to church. I have all of her information and can't find a record for her. I have tried both her full maiden name and her married name and have had no luck locating her record. Verified her birth date and it is correct. Any ideas on next steps?

Thanks,
Brent

How old is the member? If she was never baptised, the record could have been cancelled.

I think the next step would be to call local unit support and see if they can find her. It's possible she asked for her record to be cancelled at some point. They should still be able to find it.

She was born in 1964, so not too old. That was my next thought but I didn't want to dig too deep with her and possibly cause embarrassment. Can you point me to a phone number for the Local Unit Support?

Problem resolved with Local Unit Support.

Thank you!

I have a member of my ward that was baptized March 23rd 2013 and confirmed the same day because she was a child of record. I cannot find her in the system and was wondering if she was ever created in the system? Her name is <redacted>, her birthday is <redacted>. If you could please let me know if that was ever created that would be fantastic. If not I will go ahead and create that record.

ajn4life wrote:I have a member of my ward that was baptized March 23rd 2013 and confirmed the same day because she was a child of record. I cannot find her in the system and was wondering if she was ever created in the system? Her name is <redacted>, her birthday is <redacted>. If you could please let me know if that was ever created that would be fantastic. If not I will go ahead and create that record.

First of all, please note that this is a public forum, and so you should never post personal details for members such as name and birthdate. I have redacted that information.

Second, this is a community forum and it's unlikely that anyone who could look up that information would see this post anyway. If you want to find out the status of this record, I'd recommend that you do the following:

• You said that she was a child of record. If that's true, then you should already have her membership record, and the only question is if the baptism was recorded. You should never create a new record when a child of record is baptized, but simply record the baptism.
• If the baptism happened while she was still 8 years old, then the ward clerk can simply record the information, assuming you have proper documentation and/or witnesses.
• If the baptism happened when she was 9 or older, then the mission would be responsible for recording it as a convert baptism. You should check with the mission office to see what their records show.
• If for some reason you don't have the record because the family was not in your ward at the time of the baptism, you should try to move her record into your ward using Leader and Clerk Resources. As long as she has a membership record, regardless of whether or not her baptism was recorded, you should be able to request her record using her name and birthdate.

In addition to what aebrown has said, I've noticed a item of confusion among clerks that may or may not apply to your case. The confusion is understanding the difference between the children showing on the parent's records and the child having their own record. Simply because the child is listed on the parent's record doesn't mean the child has a record. The information on the parent's record is strictly "genealogy". The child could have moved away from home, living with someone else or even deceased and they'd still show there.

If the child doesn't have an individual record, then they will not show on the ward directory, or any primary rolls an anyplace else except the parent's record.

While there might be more then one way this can come about, the most common is when a family is baptized into the ward. The mission will notate all the children on the parent's record, but will only create records for the family members that were baptized. It's up the ward to create the child-of-record following policies on permission for creating records. (Handbook 1: 13.6.2)