Create membership record years after the fact

[cjbeckert]

What would be the best course of action to create a membership record 15 years after the baptism? And, yes, there is a story to this one.

Fifteen years ago the wife and 8 year old son of a less active member were baptized. The LA member's father performed the baptisms and was a member of the the bishopric at the time and still resides in our ward. Later the wife passed away and the husband remained inactive along with the son. The error wasn't discovered until recently when boundary changes brought the LA member's records back into our ward and his father, the one who performed the baptisms, pointed out the omission.

From what I can gather, it appears that the missionaries took care of creating the mother's record as a convert but since the boy was 8 at the time of baptism left it to the ward to create the record. The ward clerk at the time thought the missionaries would take care of both.

I couldn't find, or missed, guidance in CHI or MLS help files or training for this type of situation. We are fortunate to have the person who performed the ordinance, the former bishop, and former clerk currently in the ward, all of whom testify that the ordinance occured. So what's the best way to proceed? Just create enter it as an 8 year old baptism in MLS despite pop up warnings that he's too old? And no, he was never ordained which may simplify the fix.

[aebrown]

What would be the best course of action to create a membership record 15 years after the baptism? And, yes, there is a story to this one.

Fifteen years ago the wife and 8 year old son of a less active member were baptized. The LA member's father performed the baptisms and was a member of the the bishopric at the time and still resides in our ward. Later the wife passed away and the husband remained inactive along with the son. The error wasn't discovered until recently when boundary changes brought the LA member's records back into our ward and his father, the one who performed the baptisms, pointed out the omission.

From what I can gather, it appears that the missionaries took care of creating the mother's record as a convert but since the boy was 8 at the time of baptism left it to the ward to create the record. The ward clerk at the time thought the missionaries would take care of both.

I couldn't find, or missed, guidance in CHI or MLS help files or training for this type of situation. We are fortunate to have the person who performed the ordinance, the former bishop, and former clerk currently in the ward, all of whom testify that the ordinance occured. So what's the best way to proceed? Just create enter it as an 8 year old baptism in MLS despite pop up warnings that he's too old? And no, he was never ordained which may simplify the fix.

See this post for the CHI reference. The whole thread is instructive, but be aware that there is some incorrect information in one of the posts (but it is corrected in a later post).

MLS will not let you create a child baptism record for a child older than 9, so I think you'll have to create it as a convert baptism.