Church HQ assistance for a membership record?

Discuss questions around local unit policies for membership (creating records, transferring records, etc.) This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
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fletch1027
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Church HQ assistance for a membership record?

#1

Post by fletch1027 »

We have a new move in and she was baptized in South America a few years ago. I verified the spelling of her name and birthday, but her records cannot be found.

Is there a "help desk" @ church HQ that can assist to see if she even has a valid membership record? If so, does anyone have the phone # and hours? I am hoping it is like tech support where they are open late on mutual nights.

Thanks,
Harry
techgy
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#2

Post by techgy »

fletch wrote:We have a new move in and she was baptized in South America a few years ago. I verified the spelling of her name and birthday, but her records cannot be found.

Is there a "help desk" @ church HQ that can assist to see if she even has a valid membership record? If so, does anyone have the phone # and hours? I am hoping it is like tech support where they are open late on mutual nights.

Thanks,
Harry
Harry,

You can contact church HQ at (800) 453-3860 then ask for membership.
Be prepared to furnish as much information as possible about the member that you're requesting information about (D.O.B., etc). They are open from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM mountain time.
Have you read the Code of Conduct?
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mkmurray
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#3

Post by mkmurray »

fletch wrote:Is there a "help desk" @ church HQ that can assist to see if she even has a valid membership record? If so, does anyone have the phone # and hours? I am hoping it is like tech support where they are open late on mutual nights.
I was going to say you could try doing a Special Request through the MLS software, but I think you may have to have the record first to be able to do that. To read more on Special Requests, read the following article on the LDS Tech Wiki: https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Special_Requests

You can also try sending an MLS Message (also in the MLS software) to Membership Support. This is a way for you to communicate with the same help desk people you would over the phone, but at your own convenience (and their own convenience) through an email-like messaging system built right into MLS. You won't necessarily get immediate response, but usually it's within a few days. In fact, I think the support desk may appreciate an MLS message over a phone call, because then it is easier to verify who you say you are.

I don't seem to find an article on MLS Messaging, but it's pretty simple to find and do. Let us know if you have follow-up questions.
jbh001
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Location: Las Vegas, NV

#4

Post by jbh001 »

My experience has been that Clerk Support is usually rather reluctant to do this for anyone except the bishop/branch president because they are the only ones the Clerk Support really has ways of verifiying their identity over the phone before handing out confidential information. Not that it happens regularly, but theoretically anyone could call in and pose as a ward clerk or counselor in the bishopric in an attempt to get identifying information about someone else.

So be prepared to have your bishop make the call.

As an alternative, I would try to think of other places the member might be listed. For example, if the spouse, either parent, or any of the children are members, she might be listed on their membership record, and you might be able to track down her membership record that way regardless of spelling and birth dates.

And speaking of birth dates, I'm sure you are aware that most of the world and the Church use a Little Endian date format, whereas the United States generally uses a Middle Endian date format. This means that if the paperwork for this member was filled out by someone from the United States, and the numbers are ambiguous, 10/09/1970 could mean either October 9th (middle endian) or September 10th (little endian). An example of an unambiguous date would be 13/10/1970 because there is no 13th month, thus you know that date is listed in little endian format.

If she happens to have a temple recommend, her membership number should be hand-written on it.

It is possible that even though she was baptised and confirmed, the paperwork to record those ordinances was never generated or processed. Thus you might end up having to go through the process of getting witnesses to testify that the ordinances were perfiormed (your bishop can get instructions on how to do this from the CHI), or as a last resort perform the ordinaces again.
russellhltn
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#5

Post by russellhltn »

I'd start by calling. As pointed out, there might be limits as to what they can do, but I've heard too many complaints about slow or non-response to MLS messages to start on that route.

Records outside of the North America area pose some special challenges. I know in the distant past I've had to fill out a form to search the historical record to find the baptism so the records could be created.

But that's why I suggest calling. That way the two of you can step though what can be done to expedite the process.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.

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greggo
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#6

Post by greggo »

jbh001 wrote:And speaking of birth dates, I'm sure you are aware that most of the world and the Church use a Little Endian date format, whereas the United States generally uses a Middle Endian date format. This means that if the paperwork for this member was filled out by someone from the United States, and the numbers are ambiguous, 10/09/1970 could mean either October 9th (middle endian) or September 10th (little endian).

When I read the first post, this was the first thing I was going to suggest. The second thing I would try would be to attempt a record request with her gender as "male." I know of at least one case where the original record had it wrong and therefore held up the process.
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