How urgent is it to provide temple ordinances for our ancestors?

“Those who wait beyond the veil for the ordinances of the gospel are in desperate circumstances analogous to the handcart pioneers.... Those who labor in the temples of the Lord are their rescuers.”

--President Gordon B. Hinckley

Frequently ordinances have already been completed, even if

there is a green arrow!

“One of the most troublesome aspects of our temple activity is that … there is duplication of effort in proxy work. People in various nations simultaneously work on the same family lines and come up with the same names....To avoid such duplication, the solution lies in complex computer technology.”

--President Gordon B. Hinckley

Why is duplication of ordinances a problem?

One individual's ordinances take about 8 man hours to complete (patron hours, temple workers’ prorated hours, and travel hours)

Duplicating ordinances is like “rescuing” those safe in the valley instead of those stranded on the plains

What to Look for that should give you caution

before clicking on a green arrow.

Some

Examples

Green arrows indicate someone needs temple work,

but they are often not correct

“A record worthy of all acceptation”-

What is wrong with this pedigree?

What is wrong with this pedigree?

Shows only a father and son, no other dates or

relationships are known

This is what an extracted temple name looks like in

Family Tree

What is wrong in this family?

What is wrong in this family?

Samuel was born in 1804, married in 1825; his parents were born in 1910 and 1912 and married in 1942

What else is wrong in this family?

What else is wrong in this family?

“Samuel” is shown as female, “Rosemary” is shown as male

Same family—what is wrong?

Same family—what is wrong?

This person, Rosemary, was sealed to the wrong parents

What is wrong with reserving this ordinance?

What is wrong with reserving this ordinance?

“ Martha” is really a female, not a male as shown

Oh Boy - Green Arrows! Let’s click on the Parents’ Arrow

Hmmmm?Extreme gender confusion!

Thank heaven this isn’tyour family

Someone actually put thisinto Family Tree

Two people listed as both female and male. Research isneeded.

Search for Sourcesto Prove Gender

Several Marriage records found.Click on one with an Image!

Extracted info doesn’t show gender. So view the Image!

RESEARCH PAYS OFF!Richard Helen is a “Miss”

Attach the source to the person listed as a female

Now delete the bogus person

Follow the same process for poor Martha

What is wrong in this family?

What is wrong in this family?

There don’t appear to be any obvious

errors. Everything “looks” plausible.

What is wrong in this family?

This person belongs in a different family. Only research can confirm

everyone in a family really belongs.

Conclusion: Research is mandatory before reserving ordinances!

Most errors are not obvious—they may “look” correct

Start your research by finding all sources

And attach sources to the person’s page

Find additional sources if needed

If possible, find a birth, marriage, and death record for each person

Why can’t I just use a census record to estimate birth and marriage dates, and forget

about birth, marriage, and death records?

You can if that is all that is available

However, if the birth, marriage, and death records are available, ordinances might be repeated for each record if all records are not found initially

If a child died before age eight, only sealing to parents is needed

What if ancestors several generations back need ordinances?

Because of the many errors in Family Tree, you may not be related to them

You need to make sure each generation in between is correct before proceeding

Duplicate records may exist where temple work is already completed

Duplicate records can cause duplication of ordinances

There are 12 possible different records for Ole, Ole’s ordinances could

potentially be done up to 12 times

Possible Duplicate Ordinances

Spend an hour or two researching and merging any duplicate records if necessary

Only merge records if you are certain they are the same people

If there are 10 duplicate ordinances prevented, 80 hours of unnecessary temple work is prevented

Why worry? Won’t all the errors be fixed in the Millennium?

“Because of the sacred nature of this work, members should be diligent in assuring the accuracy of all information submitted.”

--First Presidency Letter, June 1995

We will sort it out in the millennium?

We may need several millenniums!

Go back 10 generations and see 512 direct line couples

Conservatively assume each subsequent generation has only 4 children. (Most have many more than that)

Go forward 7 generations (excluding the last 110 years)

There would be 8,388,608 7th generation descendants!

And if generations 1-6 and spouses are included, there would be 22,368,256 persons

We will sort it out in the millennium?

If only 5 percent were available due to lack of records or some of the work having already been done, the potential would still be 1,118,413 related people.

If only 5 percent were duplicated that’s 447,365 hours of

temple work wasted.

That’s 20,335 days or 150 years!

We will sort it out in the millennium?

Now consider that there have been

an estimated

100 billion people on earth.

Keeping the same ratio ...

We will sort it out in the millennium? Hardly!

6778 Years

of

WASTED

Effort