Record birth and blessing certificate

Discuss questions around local unit policies for membership (creating records, transferring records, etc.) This forum should not contain specific financial or membership information.
marcfromm
New Member
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 3:07 pm

Record birth and blessing certificate

#1

Post by marcfromm »

The instructions presented here https://www.lds.org/help/support/create-membership-record?lang=eng are not clear if I can add a new born to a family online or if I must use the MLS program. The steps in the link do not match online, but attempting it online prompts me with Add Child -> To create a record, select "Create Record" from the "Membership" menu.

Also do I add the new born first then generate the blessing certificate or vice versa?

Thanks
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
Posts: 3827
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#2

Post by rmrichesjr »

Being a ward membership clerk, I can share my experience today of creating a membership record and printing a blessing certificate entirely from LCR. I had seen the above-referenced page but had temporarily forgotten about it. It was very straightforward to 1) create the membership record, and 2) print the blessing certificate. I believe I started with the "Create Record" menu item under Membership -> Records.
marcfromm
New Member
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 3:07 pm

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#3

Post by marcfromm »

Thanks for the reply. In the future, if a child is not going to be blessed until several months after its birth, should I wait to create the record until the time of blessing or is it best practice to create the record as soon as possible?
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
Posts: 3827
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#4

Post by rmrichesjr »

Personal opinion: Unless you have seen instruction otherwise, my inclination would be to create the membership record sooner and not wait until blessing day.

From LCR's "Create Record" form, you can print a blank form that the parents can fill in. The filled-in form also provides assurance that you had permission from parent(s) to create the membership record.
marcfromm
New Member
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 3:07 pm

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#5

Post by marcfromm »

The Handbook 2 states, "the clerk prepares of Child Blessing Record ...also creates a blessing certificate." I see the option for the certificate but no option for a child blessing record. Is the child blessing record no longer an item?
jdlessley
Community Moderators
Posts: 9858
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:30 am
Location: USA, TX

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#6

Post by jdlessley »

marcfromm wrote:Thanks for the reply. In the future, if a child is not going to be blessed until several months after its birth, should I wait to create the record until the time of blessing or is it best practice to create the record as soon as possible?
Handbook 1, 13.6.2, provides the guidance in creating membership records for members of record.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
eblood66
Senior Member
Posts: 3907
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:17 am
Location: Cumming, GA, USA

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#7

Post by eblood66 »

marcfromm wrote:The Handbook 2 states, "the clerk prepares of Child Blessing Record ...also creates a blessing certificate." I see the option for the certificate but no option for a child blessing record. Is the child blessing record no longer an item?
Select Membership > Create Record. Then either enter the name, gender and birthdate and click the 'Print Create Record Form' to print a partially prefilled form or click on the appropriate Blank Create Record Form link below the buttons.
marcfromm
New Member
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 3:07 pm

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#8

Post by marcfromm »

eblood66 wrote:
marcfromm wrote:The Handbook 2 states, "the clerk prepares of Child Blessing Record ...also creates a blessing certificate." I see the option for the certificate but no option for a child blessing record. Is the child blessing record no longer an item?
Select Membership > Create Record. Then either enter the name, gender and birthdate and click the 'Print Create Record Form' to print a partially prefilled form or click on the appropriate Blank Create Record Form link below the buttons.
I followed the Create Record steps, but at the end of the steps the final item was the blessing certificate, there was no option for a child blessing record, unless I totally missed it. Is the Create Record steps the same thing as preparing a Child Blessing Record?

Thanks
eblood66
Senior Member
Posts: 3907
Joined: Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:17 am
Location: Cumming, GA, USA

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#9

Post by eblood66 »

marcfromm wrote:I followed the Create Record steps, but at the end of the steps the final item was the blessing certificate.
The Child Record Form (formerly the Child Blessing form) should be created, filled out and signed before the record is created. The Child Record Form is where the parents give permission for the record to be created.

To print the record you only need to select Membership > Create Record in LCR. You don't have to go any further in the process. The link to print the blank form is on that first page:
ChildRecordForm.png
(37 KiB) Not downloaded yet
So first you select Create Record and print a blank form. You get that form filled out and then you come back later and use Create Record again but this time you continue through the process to the end (optionally printing the blessing certificate if needed).
rmrichesjr
Community Moderators
Posts: 3827
Joined: Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:32 am
Location: Dundee, Oregon, USA

Re: Record birth and blessing certificate

#10

Post by rmrichesjr »

What he said. :-) Thank you, eblood66, for that excellently organized and written explanation. If it were up to me, I'd nominate that explanation to be the foundation for the update of the instruction page referenced at the top of this thread.
Post Reply

Return to “Membership Help”