Tech Forum

Hi, Not sure where to go here. I lost my best friend in 1983. I have felt the need to perform his temple work for some time so I looked up the requirements, reached out to his sister in Texas and obtained permission to do his temple work along with his fathers. I had verbal permission and in addition to that, she also said that her mother gave my mother permission to do Jasons work back in 1983(I was unaware). She sent me a specific email stating we had spoken and she gave the birth and death dates of her brother and her father along with permission for me to take both names to the temple. I then requested to do the temple work and submitted the message from his sister. To my surprise, I was given permission to do the father's work but denied to do the work for my friend. I pleaded with them to reconsider but again was denied and eventually they blocked my ability to message them(Familysearch.org). I have completed the work for his father and now need to know what to do to get permission from the church to do the work for my friend.

I don't know the specific criteria they use to approve or deny requests, but I know that policies are more strict about doing work for those born less than 110 years ago. If your friend's father was born more than 110 years ago, but your friend was born more recently, that might partially explain why one was approved but not the other. You might try asking at the FamilySearch Community to see if anyone there has additional insight: https://community.familysearch.org/en/categories/temple

Many of the people who respond to help requests on FamilySearch are volunteers. I'm sure that the policies themselves are documented on their end, but it's unfortunate that the person responding to you didn't or wasn't able to provide more detail as to the "why." It does sound like you did your due diligence to seek permission.

Before you perform ordinances for a deceased person born within the last 95 years, obtain 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.

It sounds like you got permission from the sister, but it's unclear if you got permission from the mother. Or, if that information was included in your request. Depending on the age of your friend, you might need to document the absence of any spouse or children before you'd get approval based on the mother's permission.

It's also unclear if your mother put in a request for Jason's work. If she had already requested the work, that's likely going to block your request.

Please keep in mind this is primarily a technology focused forum with user-to-user help. We don't know the details of your case, nor can we grant you permission. The best we can do is help you understand what's going on.

@russellhltn, what's the source of your quote? I'm only finding 110 years, and I'm not finding a specific order for family members. See:
How do I request ordinances for an ancestor who was born in the last 110 years?
Do I need permission from the closest living relative to do temple ordinances?

It is a good point that if there's a living spouse that was not divorced, that might make a difference.

sbradshaw wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:55 am @russellhltn, what's the source of your quote?

I asked 'Dr. Google' and got this: Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work, Chapter 7 (PDF)

However, if I search the same thing from the main website, I end up on this page which omits any mention of doing friends.

It's not entirely clear which is the more recent version. Looking in GL, I can't find "Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work" suggesting the manual may not be current.

Don't you just love when they leave outdated material lying around?

russellhltn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 12:39 pmIt's not entirely clear which is the more recent version. Looking in GL, I can't find "Member’s Guide to Temple and Family History Work" suggesting the manual may not be current.

If you look at the full manual, you can see on the title page that this is a 2002 manual last updated in 2009. So it's definitely not the current policy. There are also some other clues that it might be out of date, such as references to new.familysearch.org (and yes, I wonder with you why such old documents are still on the Church website).

Current official policies can be found in the Handbook, Section 28.1. That section links to some articles in the FamilySearch Help Center.

There is, however, one slight inconsistency in these articles that is highly relevant to this discussion. In most of the articles, you'll see text such as "Please reserve ordinances for individuals only if you are related to them," often citing the 2012 First Presidency Letter on this subject. That letter states "Our pre-eminent obligation is to seek out and identify our own ancestors. Those whose names are submitted for proxy temple ordinances should be related to the submitter", which does give a little wiggle room on whether ordinances can be performed for nonrelatives. Then in the article Doing temple work for people not related to me, it says "Please do not request temple ordinances for a nonrelative unless you have obtained advanced permission from a close living relative." That clearly implies with permission you can request ordinances for a nonrelative.

My take on this is that we should focus on our relatives when we reserve temple ordinances -- that is our "pre-eminent obligation." But on occasion, with appropriate permission, we can perform ordinances for nonrelatives.