Complicated ward directory entry

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isntsheheather
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2016 10:00 am

Complicated ward directory entry

#1

Post by isntsheheather »

Hello,

I am a divorced female. My ex husband, his new wife and I all attend the same ward (the same ward my ex has attended since childhood, and the same one I attended since I was baptized in 2003.) We have two children together. Currently, the children are listed in the ward directory with my ex and his wife. When we got divorced a new entry was created for me and the children remained with him. My ex and I have joint custody and have our children the exact same amount of time. I would like my children to be listed with me as well, as this is an accurate representation of their home life. My ward clerk advised me that this is not possible. I understand that it's a bit nonconventional but I would think that the church would want to embrace all sorts of families. It's hurtful to me that my children are not listed as mine. Can something be done about this?
eblood66
Senior Member
Posts: 3907
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:17 am
Location: Cumming, GA, USA

Re: Complicated ward directory entry

#2

Post by eblood66 »

Unfortunately there isn't a way of handling this as you'd like right now. A given person can only be listed in one household within one ward. The children could be moved to your household but they can't be listed in both at the same time.

The church has recently made adjustments to help deal with children in joint custody situations. Within the last couple years they added the ability to create out-of-unit records so that (among other reasons) a child could be listed in multiple wards. But this doesn't help in your situation where both households are in the same ward. I expect this is a relatively uncommon situation so handling it hasn't come of the attention of the appropriate decision makers. And even if it has, the development schedules of the different tools mean that there is often a significant delay between when something is planned and when it is available. In fact, the out-of-unit support I just mentioned isn't fully supported in the Directory at this point for that reason even though it will be eventually.

You can use the Feedback link at the bottom of the Directory page to explain your situation and suggest that changes be made to better represent the custody situation of your children. But be aware that such a change will require some fundamental changes to how the data is structured in the church systems. That kind of change is very tricky because it affects so many systems and often takes considerable time before it can be completed (often years).

Also note that I'm just another user of church technology like yourself. I've observed and used church technology for many years and my response is based on those observations. But I (and most others in the forums) have no connection to the church development teams and no access to the decision makers (who are the general authorities in charge of these matters). So don't take this as anything official.
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