Shared Custody of Children

[typhon]

thanks everyone for your input. i will call church headquarters tomorrow. will post what they suggest.

[krugerb]

I just came here looking for the answer to this question, but unfortunately typhon didn't come back and tell us what he learned. So, here's what I learned when I called just now.

There is not a way to share the children between two households at the same time in the same unit. However, they did tell me the in all custody situations, even 50/50 splits, one of the parent's addresses is designated as the legal address of the children. They recommend finding out which one that is and using that as my basis for which household I put them in. This way the Ward leadership is not who has to make the call. It's been made already by the court or whatever agreement created the sharing split.

[codyzzd]

is there a way to list children in the household of both divorced parents?

In your family records or genealogy software, you can create separate family units for each parent and their respective children. This allows you to accurately list the children in each household while still maintaining their connection to both parents.

[lajackson]

In your family records or genealogy software, you can create separate family units for each parent and their respective children. This allows you to accurately list the children in each household while still maintaining their connection to both parents.

This is not true. It works for genealogical records, but does not solve the problem the poster has of recording the membership records in both units so that the normal membership Directory and Tools functions will work for the unit that does not actually have custody of the records.

[typhon]

after a long back and forth it appears that the official position of the church is:

the parent that has the "legal" address of residence, is where the children are to be listed.

it does not matter that custody is 50/50. what matters is the court determined address of residence.

sorry it took so long.

hope this helps with anyone in the same situation.

[BrianEdwards]

Thanks @typhon! That's always so helpful when somebody returns and posts the results of their interactions with Church HQ, or GSD, etc. Your post will be very helpful for future leaders who are looking for answers to the same situation.