Tech Forum

Is there an easy way to find ancestors who need ordinances done? I've tried the suggestions on https://help.familysearch.org/kb/UserGu ... ances.html but my family tree has generations and generations of people and I've spent the past hour clicking around the family tree view to try to find ordinances to do but I can't find anything.

Is there a simple search option, e.g., "I'd like to find a [male|female] who needs the following ordinance completed: [baptism|confirmation|initiatory|endowment|sealing to spouse|sealing to parents]"?

Thanks!

I have this same problem, but I can't find an easy way to see what are the persons in my family line that need ordinances... a new feature at FamilySearch will be a great thing to big generations family managers...

I use third party applications for this. Here's a list of certified third party apps. Roots Magic Essentials is a good one. You can sync with New Family Search and then view a list of all people who need ordinances done.

OneGreatFamily.com has a new service called Ancestors Waiting, formerly OneClickTempleTrip during beta, that will search for a requested amount of ordinances by searching through your tree for you using your FamilySearch login. It is a certified FamilySearch application and the developers worked with the Church developers.

It is a PAID service, but if you feel it is worth the cost to have some automated programs find you names that are ready then this may be the solution for you!

Check it out at http://ancestorswaiting.com/

The reason most names are in new FamilySearch is because the temple work has already been done. The idea is to help people see what has been done, so that they can then DO RESEARCH to locate more names outside of new FamilySearch. Ths requires the old fashioned ways of locating people, as well as online research. I order microfilms from the FHL and find names that way. If you come from a pioneer family, it may be difficult to find new names. A friend of mine suggested looking at the aunts, uncles and cousins of each generation of the pioneer families, because mostly direct ancestors have been completed.

New FamilySearch was not intended to replace research, just make it easier to see what has already been done. Researchers who have located more names than they have time to do ordinances for may enter their research there, and allow others to do the ordinances, but the number of researchers who do this is small. Most researchers are doing genealogy so that THEY will have names for which to do ordinances. Try doing some research yourself and you will have your own names to do.

For several years volunteers around the church have been scanning records and entering the information in a database. That database can now be searched for ancestral information.

Some of these records are the handwritten records that have been stored for years in the church archives. Having this and other information in an electronic format has greatly assisted with Family History research.

To search the database use http://search.labs.familysearch.org/rec ... html#start

Marian JOhnson wrote:The reason most names are in new FamilySearch is because the temple work has already been done. The idea is to help people see what has been done, so that they can then DO RESEARCH to locate more names outside of new FamilySearch....

New FamilySearch was not intended to replace research, just make it easier to see what has already been done....

Marian's right--there's no standard, simple way to find ancestors whose work needs to be done. And as much as I love technology, the process can't reliably be automated either, by nFS or any other program.

I'm the daughter of an avid, life-long researcher who has carefully done much of our family's work. So finding names to do isn't easy on our lines! This is what works for me (please don't read this like I think you don't know this, but sometimes stating the obvious is useful )

1. I pray to know what line to focus on, and I pray specifically for help to find individuals who need their work done. Prayers in the temple seem to be particularly effective.

2. Fasting helps too.

3. I try to listen to the guidance of the Spirit. If, while researching, I start to feel uneasy or sense a kind of block, that usually indicates I need to shift my focus to another family or line.

4. I concentrate on one generation of a family at a time, focusing on each individual by turn. I review census records and cemetery records to determine if any children are missing. Sometimes I find that work needs to be done for spouses of children.

5. Finally, I've found that steady, consistent effort is more effective than trying to "finish" my family history .

I hope these ideas are helpful!

Kathryn

One benefit of NFS is that it provides a way to contact others with whom you share common ancestry. Try contacting some NFS users who have edited the NFS records for some of your ancestors and ask them if they can point you to some relatives who need ordinance work.

I've been pondering this issue further. I can imagine that someone reading my post above might say, "Yes, yes, I realize there's a spiritual side. But I just want to identify those who need their work done!"

But my point is exactly that there ISN'T an "easy button" for identifying people who need their work done. The closest thing is clicking the temple icon in Pedigree view, which will show you the ordinance status for all immediate family members of that person.

But even if there were such a button, it would be less helpful than you'd think. Finding a name marked "Ready" in New FamilySearch isn't a guarantee that the name hasn't already been done. In fact, in my experience, about 30% of those marked Ready in nFS shouldn't be. For example, I cleared an ancestor, Mary Shoemaker, who was marked Ready, only to discover that her work had already been done under her German name, Maria Schumacher (the family Americanized their name when they emigrated).

To clarify, this doesn't mean nFS is broken or inadequate. (Using the example above, I don't think it's reasonable to expect nFS to "know" the two were one individual.) It is a *wonderful* tool, but it is only a tool. Seeking and following the Spirit is essential, along with gaining knowledge through research experience. Each individual needs to be carefully and prayerfully researched in order to clear him or her for temple work. (This doesn't have to be a long process for each person, just a careful and caring one.)

Speaking of gaining knowledge--check out the one-day and five-day classes offered at the Family History Training Center in Orem, Utah: www.familyhistorytraining.org.

Hope these thoughts are helpful!

Kathryn

GreenwoodKL wrote:OneGreatFamily.com has a new service called Ancestors Waiting, formerly OneClickTempleTrip during beta, that will search for a requested amount of ordinances by searching through your tree for you using your FamilySearch login. It is a certified FamilySearch application and the developers worked with the Church developers.

It is a PAID service, but if you feel it is worth the cost to have some automated programs find you names that are ready then this may be the solution for you!

Check it out at http://ancestorswaiting.com/

I like ancestors waiting. It has a couple of flaws I would like to see corrected. The first is that it gives a number of people needing ordinances but do not qualify. I have 2000 people that need ordinances but I do not know who they are. The second improvement I would like to see is to be able to reserve more than one ordinance at a time. An example would be to reserve baptism, endowment and sealings all at the same time