Tech Forum

Recently working on records of a family of new converts. Dad, Mom and oldest son baptized but there are two younger children that will not show up in the household record. They have membership records and will show up as children of each parent (in individual record mode) but when I try to open up their records everything is greyed out and cannot be edited.

I thought it might be an anomaly because the records were created by the mission and not our unit. Then I found another set of records with the same problem of a longtime member.

Contacted Salt Lake and they said to "refresh unit membership data". Did that, No change. I'm fairly new as membership clerk - is this a common issue in MLS?

joshuajljohn wrote:They have membership records and will show up as children of each parent (in individual record mode) but when I try to open up their records everything is greyed out and cannot be edited.

Are you able to see the the children's name when you go to select a record for the "individual record"? Or are you only seeing them on the parent's record?

The children don't show up in our unit membership. But you can see them as children of each parent in each parent's individual record. They are not visible in any other format. Unfortunately when I click on their names (under each parent's record) their info comes up but everything is gray and not interactive.

Any thoughts?

That simply means that you don't have those membership records in your ward. The fact that the children show up on the Children section of the individual record only means that they are children of that person. For example, I would show up as a child on each of my parents' individual records, but I haven't lived in their household for many years. Being listed as a child is quite a different thing from being a member of that household; that can only be the case if you have the records for those children in the ward.

So if the children actually reside in the home with the parents, then you simply need to request their records. You can get their membership record numbers and birth dates from the screen you're looking at, so the request should be easy and the records should arrive quickly. That's assuming that records were created for each of the children; if the records don't exist for children under 8, you can create a new child of record membership record for them.

You need to create a "child of record" membership record. When new converts are baptized only those in the family who are baptized have a record created.

The children I don't see in the houselhold record are 2 and 4 years old. I can see that they have membership records, just not that I can access. I guess I never thought of just requesting their records. I will try that - I just can't see how they are not associated with the household records when they were all created together about 6 months ago.

I went through this last year with a convert family. While there is a record number on the parents record it is not a membership number. You will have to create a "child of record" in order to get a real record with a membership number that can be tied to the household. The reason for this is because the children where never given a "Name and a Blessing" so no record was created.

so I should create a new record for each child?

I guess it makes sense. Does this happen with every member (convert or long time) in the event that they have a child that is not blessed? I ask because I have the same issue with another member in my ward (just stumbled across it) whose husband is not a member and has 1 year old and a 3 year old who show up in the family but not in the household.

Yes, but first you need to make sure its OK with the parents. With new converts its usually not a problem. You just need to explain to them that in order for the children to appear on the Primary rolls there needs to be a record made.