Religious Education

Lesson 5
New FamilySearch: Submitting Names for Temple Work

New FamilySearch, as discussed in lesson 2, also allows one to submit names for the temple. This lesson will teach you how to submit and reserve names for temple ordinances as well as ensure that ordinance work has been completed.

"This Church is concerned with individuals, notwithstanding our numbers, whether it be 6 million or 10 million or 12 million or 50 million. We must never lose sight of the fact that the individual is the important thing" ("We Must Look after the Individual," Church News, 4 Mar. 2000, 6.)

Policies for Submitting Names for Temple Ordinances

The LDS Church has issued important and specific policies for preparing names for temple ordinances. The following information concerning policies for submitting names for temple ordinances has been taken from the Member’s Guide to Family History Work. 

• Generally, you may perform temple ordinances for deceased persons one year or more after the date of death without regard tot he person's worthiness or cause of death. If you have questions, please contact your bishop or branch president.
• Before you perform ordinances for a deceased person born within the last 95 years, please get permission from the closest living relative. Relatives may not want the ordinances performed or may want to perform the ordinances themselves. The closest living relatives are, in this order: a spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings.

Guidelines for Submitting Names for Proxy Temple Ordinances

• For baptisms and endowments, you must have your ancestor's name, gender, an event date (or an approximate date), and an event place. (Examples of events include birth, christening, marriage, death, or burial.) An event place could be a U.S. state, Canadian province, or a foreign country. (The ideal is to have an exact date and place.)

• For sealing to parents, you must have the information required for baptism and endowment, plus the first or last name of the father.

• For sealing of husband and wife, you must have the name of the husband (but not necessarily the wife), marriage date, and marriage place.

• An individual must be deceased for more than one year (unless the individual was a worthy member of the Church who died before age twenty-one or who, for reasons beyond the individual's control, was unable to go to a temple in mortality). Individuals include:
• Immediate family members
• Direct-line ancestors (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on, and their families).
• Biological, adoptive, and foster family lines connected to your family.
• Collateral family lines (uncles, aunts, cousins, and their families).
• Your own descendants.
• Possible ancestors, meaning individuals who have a probable family relationship that cannot be verified because the records are inadequate, such as those who have the same last name and resided in the same area as your known ancestors.
• You may submit the names of individuals with who you shared a friendship. This is an exception to the general rule that members should not submit the names of individuals to whom they are not related. Before performing ordinances for a deceased individual who was a friend, you should obtain permission from the individual's closest living relative.

• For ancestors born within the last ninety-five years, if there is anyone more closely related to the deceased individual you should obtain the relative's permission for the ordinance work, even if the relative is not a member of the Church.

• Do not submit names of individuals for temple work who lived before A.D. 1500, or who are members of royalty, without first consulting with the Family History Department in Salt Lake City.

• If you find that the Ordinance Index or IGI misspells your ancestor's name or lists incorrect ordinance dates or places, do not resubmit your ancestor's name for temple work. The ordinances are still valid. However, please contact the Family History Department if the gender is incorrect.

• Do not submit names of persons who are not related to you, including names of famous people or names gathered from unapproved extraction projects, such as victims of the Jewish Holocaust. For Jewish Holocaust victims, LDS Church members cannot do the ordinances for these people except under the following conditions:
• They are an immediate family member of the deceased (defined as parents, spouse, or children)
• They have permission of all living immediate family members
• They have the permission of the closest living relative if no immediate family members are living

Determining What Ordinances to Perform
Use the following policies to help you know what ordinances need to be performed:

• When ordinances are not needed:
• Children who are born after their mother has been sealed to a husband are born in the covenant. They do not need to receive the ordinances of sealing to parents.
• Temple ordinances are not performed for stillborn children. However, a child who lived even briefly after birth should be sealed to his or her parents.  In some countries, particularly in Europe, children who died shortly after birth were often recorded as stillborn.  Children listed as stillborn on records from these countries may be sealed to their parents.  The FamilySearch Internet site will let you know if a sealing ordinance needs to be performed for a child who was recorded as stillborn.  You should record all births, indicating any stillborn children.
• No baptism or endowment is performed for a child who died before the age of eight.  Only sealings to parents are performed for such children.  If the child was sealed to parents while he or she was living or if the child was born in the covenant, no vicarious ordinances are performed. 
• Sealing couples with undocumented marriages
• Use the FamilySearch Internet site (https://new.familysearch.org) to prepare these names for temple ordinances without any other approval process.
• Deceased women married more than once
• You may have a deceased woman sealed to all men to whom she was legally married. However, if she was sealed to a husband during her life, all her husbands must be deceased before she can be sealed to a husband to whom she was not sealed during life. 
• Deceased persons who had mental disabilites
• Temple ordinances for deceased persons who had mental disabilities are performed the same as for other deceased persons.
• Persons who are presumed dead
• A person who is presumed dead after 10 years have passed since the time of the presumed death.This policy applies to:
• (1) persons who are missing in action or lost at sea or who have been declared legally dead
• (2) persons who disappeared under circumstances where death is apparent but nobody has been recovered. 
• In all other cases of missing persons, temple ordinances may not be performed until 110 years have passed from the time of the person’s birth. 
• Other policies:
• Please see your bishop for information about the following:
• Temple ordinances involving living people.
• Temple ordinances to seal the living to the dead.
• Any policies not covered above.

Reserving Names for Temple Ordinances
Temple work is now done through the new FamilySearch system. In order to submit temple work you must be registered  and log in to your account. From there, if an ancestor’s file indicates that temple ordinances are needed, be sure to check for duplicate records.  Combine any additional duplicates found, and if the file still indicates that ordinances are needed, you may reserve the name and perform the ordinances on your ancestor’s behalf.

Creating a Family Ordinance Request 
Once you have selected the ordinances you would like to perform, the next step is to prepare a Family Ordinance Request (FOR).  An FOR allows you to select a portion or all (up to 50) of the names from your reserved list. You can clear 1 to 50 names when you print an FOR.

After selecting the ordinances to be included on an FOR, FamilySearch will have you compare the requested ordinances with possible duplicates in the system.  This is a precautionary measure in an effort to decrease duplication.  If a possible duplicate is found, carefully compare the information and determine if the records are duplicates or not.  Then, select the appropriate response.  If one or more individuals did not have duplicates in the system, a summary of the ordinances to be performed will be displayed on the screen.  The Family Ordinances Request (FOR) can then be printed and taken to a temple.

Refer to new FamilySearch's Help Center located on the home page to find guides which will help you in submitting names for temple ordinances.

Make Certain the Ordinances are Performed 
It is important to remember that performing sacred saving ordinances on behalf of deceased ancestors is a sacred privilege and responsibility. 

Those living today must perform the physical ordinance work on the earth that will qualify persons in the spirit world to receive that proxy work done for them, even as we living today receive the proxy work done for us by Jesus Christ. In other words, we work in partnership here on the earth with those missionaries in the spirit world who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those persons living in the spirit world, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh. This combination effort can free them from their spiritual prison and heal their bruised souls through Jesus Christ. This is why the members of the Church who can qualify through righteous living must go to the temple in ever increasing numbers and why they must attend the temple more frequently than they have ever done in the past (Theodore M. Burton, Conference Report, Ensign, October 1970, 58).

Once your Family Ordinance Request has been printed, it is important that you make sure the ordinances are performed in a timely manner. 

The following steps should be taken:
1.      Take your Family Ordinance Request to the temple where temple workers will print the male, female, and/or couple cards needed to perform the proxy ordinances.
2.      Prepare for your visit.
3.      Schedule your visit.  Contact the temple to learn if appointments are required at the baptistery and sealing office.
4.      Make arrangements with any proxies that may be assisting you with the ordinances.
5.      Attend the temple.
6.      Be sure the ordinance information is recorded. Once an ordinance is complete, temple workers will record when and where the ordinances were performed and upload the data to the new FamilySearch system.  All users will then be able to see the completed ordinances.

Sign in to Help Someone Else
If you are helping someone else, you may view their information on your computer. 

• On the Home screen click Sign in to Help Someone Else
• Enter in that individual’s full name, birth date, and the last 5 digits of their membership number.  It will be as if you are that individual and can view their pedigree. 

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