Tech Forum

suzyqbterri2 wrote:Im searching for my records and can't find them I moved twice in a row rather quickly and my records got lost somehow . Where or who do I speak with to get them or new copies or something? Please and thank you.

What record are you referring to? Members don't hold their own records. It's always held by the church. I'm guessing that you're talking about your baptism certificate or the Information and Ordance Summery. Your current ward clerk can print those out. But in the case of the former, the signature won't be the original person and some information may be missing.

drepouille wrote:I ask the missionaries if I can review the baptismal interview form on the date of the baptism, because missionaries typically enter bad information, or leave important fields blank. Then I remind them to send the form to the mission office as soon as possible. After two or three weeks of waiting for the record to be created, I call the mission office staff, who usually have no idea that a convert baptism occurred. At that point things happen very quickly!

Our last convert baptism occurred on 16 Dec 2017. On 2 Jan 2018, I asked the mission office if they had received the paperwork. Nope. The missionaries said it was in the mail. On 3 Jan 2018, the mission office told me they had received the paperwork, and would enter it into the system immediately. On 5 Jan 2018, I am still waiting for the mission office to enter the data and create the record.

drepouille wrote:Our last convert baptism occurred on 16 Dec 2017. On 2 Jan 2018, I asked the mission office if they had received the paperwork. Nope. The missionaries said it was in the mail. On 3 Jan 2018, the mission office told me they had received the paperwork, and would enter it into the system immediately. On 5 Jan 2018, I am still waiting for the mission office to enter the data and create the record.

The good news is that the mission office just created the membership record of the previously non-LDS husband of a member of my ward. The bad news is that they did not group the records into a single household, nor identify each spouse as now being married to a member, rather than a non-member. I haven't seen the paperwork that the missionaries have been holding for me since the baptism, but I suspect they did not include the MRN or birth date of the member wife of the new convert. No problem. I just called the GSC and they opened a case to fix the links between the spouses.

drepouille wrote:The bad news is that they did not group the records into a single household, nor identify each spouse as now being married to a member, rather than a non-member. I haven't seen the paperwork that the missionaries have been holding for me since the baptism, but I suspect they did not include the MRN or birth date of the member wife of the new convert. No problem. I just called the GSC and they opened a case to fix the links between the spouses.

With CDE, the mission really doesn't have the ability to do some of those things.

I see. That explains why we see so many marriages not properly linked when a non-LDS spouse of a member gets baptized. That is probably something clerks should double-check after baptism, or when records are moved in, or during a membership audit.

I'd hope at some level that someone is taking a look at how missions process records and working on a plan to fix the problems.

It appears that there's an issue when a non-member spouse is baptized (not properly linked), as well as when a family is converted that has children under the age of 8 (no child of record created).

Each time I call the GSC to report a problem with marriage links, they must elevate the case to the membership department. So if the GSC doesn't have the privileges to change marriage links, it is unlikely mission offices would have that privilege.
I just wish the missions were able to record the names of those who performed the convert baptisms and confirmations via CDE.

drepouille wrote:Each time I call the GSC to report a problem with marriage links, they must elevate the case to the membership department. So if the GSC doesn't have the privileges to change marriage links, it is unlikely mission offices would have that privilege.

I think that's largely a function of how the record is created. Once it's created, the tools needed to fix the link are tightly controlled. It seems like the best route would be to indicate this is a non-member spouse and then browse/find member spouse's marriage record and go from there. That way, they're linked from the start. But that would require missions to have some access to member records. Problematic in CDE.

drepouille wrote:I just wish the missions were able to record the names of those who performed the convert baptisms and confirmations via CDE.

I think the answer to that is to get them off of CDE and using LCR. As I understand it, those data fields don't exist in CMIS. But they do exist in LCR. That would probably simplify the linkage problem as well.