Releasing Temple Reservations and Finding Cousins

Nearly six months ago, I found myself sitting on a few hundred temple ordinance reservations. After exhausting my immediate family members with handfuls of ordinance cards every few months, I realized that even though we were proficient in regularly attending the temple, that we'd never be able to do all the temple work I had reserved. Extended family and a neighbor have also helped with some of the work.

The majority of these reservations were names I, my sister, and my father had added to the FamilySearch Family Tree through in depth research. I am still in the midst of adding more people to the Tree and am regularly notified via my 110 Year Temple Work Calendar of names now ready for temple work whom I researched in the past.

I realized something very powerful ... I am adding more names to the Family Tree then we'll ever complete temple work for and I'm reserving everyone I add.

There is still much research to do and I feel compelled to keep researching and adding people to the Tree. So, I don't think I'll be stopping the research anytime soon. I'm attending the temple as frequently as I can right now. I do think that I can sacrifice more time to attend a little more frequently and I'm going to work on that. Still, I'll never complete the temple work for everyone I am adding to the Tree.

Why do I feel the need to reserve the ordinances for everyone I add? It is because through my research I feel like I know these people and feel the desire to make sure their temple work is complete. However, all their temple work is not getting completed by it remaining in my temple reservation list.

Last October, I decided to release more than half my reservations. I first printed a reservation list of all the names I had reserved and made notes on the list as to which family member had which printed name. Then I started releasing names or sharing names with the shared family file (temple file). I chose to share with the temple those names I had spent the most time researching / documenting. I made a note in the margin as to if the name was released, shared, or held by a family member.

It was a freeing feeling! I could now focus on those whom I was immediately taking to the temple and I could focus on continuing my research and adding people to the Tree.

What happened next was an added blessing!

About three to four weeks later, I revisited that printed list and looked up each ID number in the Family Tree to see the status of the ordinances. I found living cousins who were reserving and completing temple work! Over the past six months, more than 50 distantly related, temple attending, living cousins have been helping do the temple work. I have contacted 15 of them directly and have shared more ordinances with them.

It has now been nearly six months and I wanted to capture a snap shot of the temple work that has been completed thus far and summarize my thoughts on releasing vs sharing with the temple file vs keeping in my own reservation list.

I compiled this data in the chart below.

I'll start with the Male ordinances:

41% of the Initiatories released have been completed and 100% shared with the temple have been completed.

19% of the Endowments released have been completed and NONE shared with the temple have been completed.

8% of the Sealing to Parents released have been completed and NONE shared with the temple have been completed.

Now the Female ordinances:

72% of the Initiatories released have been completed and 100% shared with the temple have been completed.

18% of the Endowments released have been completed and NONE shared with the temple have been completed.

4% of the Sealing to Parents released have been completed and NONE shared with the temple have been completed.

Now Sealing to Spouse ordinance:

27% of the Sealing to Spouse released have been completed and NONE shared with the temple have been completed.


Some thoughts:

• In all ordinance categories, more than half that I released have been reserved by others.

• There are still many ordinances ready to be requested from my release; I checked them all again yesterday and today.

• One distant cousin reserved many of the ordinances and immediately shared them with the temple file and there has been little to no activity on those ordinances.

• The initiatories I shared directly with the temple were completed within two weeks of being shared.

• The endowments and sealings I shared directly with the temple have had no activity in six months.

• Names on my list that were held by immediate family members have been completed and more have been shared with them which they continue to work on.

Next steps:

• I'm going to continue researching and adding new people to the Family Tree.

• I'm going to continue to attend the temple as regularly as possible.

• I'm going to release the names I shared with the temple file so that more living cousins can find the names in the Tree and do the temple work.

How about you? Are you sitting on a large temple reservation list? Do you have more ordinances on your list than you can complete in one year? If so, I suggest you print a copy of your reservation list, so that you can find the names again if needed, and have faith and release the excess names so other family members can help take their common cousins to the temple.

I promise you that you will be filled with peace and a new perspective when you do this.

I'd love to hear your experiences, please share them in the comments.

***

Update: 18 October 2019

In the past few months, I've chosen to share the names to the temple file and I'm finding that with the new Ordinances Ready tool I am able to identify more living cousins to help with the temple work.

110 Year Temple Work Calendar

As I work on adding, sourcing, and merging my family members in the FamilySearch Family Tree, I frequently add deceased family members who were born within the past 110 years.

In order to perform temple ordinances for your relative who was born less than 110 years ago, Church policy states, you must either be one of the closest living relatives, or you must obtain permission from one of the closest living relatives.

If I am not one of the closest living relatives or I have not yet found a closest living relative from whom I can obtain permission, I add this individual to my "110 Year Temple Work" calendar.

The day before the relative turns 110, I receive an email from my calendar notifying me of this event. I use that day to check to see if other relatives have added any additional sources or memories to the record since I worked on the record in the Tree. I also double check to see if there have been any duplicates of this person added to the Tree. If I find any duplicates, I verify they are the same person and then merge the records together.

At 12:00 am UTC on the day of the relative's 110th birthday, the temple ordinances (if any) become available to reserve without permission. UTC = Universal Time Coordinated or Coordinated Universal Time. It is a time standard associated with zero degree longitude and is the basis for time zones worldwide. GMT = Greenwich Mean Time is a time zone and shares the same current time as UTC.

Calendar Setup

I utilize a Google Calendar for my 110 Year Temple Work Calendar.

Under Settings, I selected "Add Calendar" and then "New Calendar".

I named my calendar "110 Year Temple Work" and gave it a description and selected my time zone.

I currently share my calendar with my sister who is actively working on our shared family history. She is able to add any 110 year birthday to the calendar. In the future, we plan to share this calendar with the youth and young adults in our family. Some of the 110 year birthday events are many decades into the future and we want our family members to complete the work we have researched.

You can share your calendar with anyone and you can control the access they have to the calendar. See events only, or add/make changes are some of the access options.

When I create an event in the calendar, I select "All day". I'll explain more about this when I show you how to add an event to the calendar. However, in the calendar settings, I can choose how I want to receive notifications for "All day" events. I have chosen to be notified by email one day before the event at 9 am. My sister chooses to be notified the day of the event.

That is the basic setup for the calendar. The only other thing I've done with my calendar is choose the color of the event display. You can find this option, by viewing the calendar and in the left navigation bar, selecting the 3 vertical dot menu to the right of the calendar name.

Event Setup

There are 2 ways to create an event. Either double click the day on the calendar, or click the red + sign at the bottom right corner of the calendar page.

Under "Add title" I add the name of my relative and in parenthesis I include the Family Tree PID for that person. If I am adding names to the calendar from my husband's family, I also add my husband's name to the title. That would look like this: "Thomas Godderidge (L2PC-D8R) - Scott"

Next I select the "All day" box and then add the birth date of the relative + 110 years. In the example above, Bertha was born on September 10, 1908, so I set the date as September 10, 2018.

Then I make sure to select the 110 Year Temple Work calendar (since I have a few other Google calendars). Then I click on the Save button at the top right of the screen.

Back to the calendar page, I can click on the event on September 10 for Bertha and I see this pop-out card. This shows me the relative's name, FamilySearch PID, date of the 110 year birthday, the notification I have set (email) and that I created this event. Clicking the edit pencil below Bertha's name takes me back to the event setup screen if needed.

At the top of the calendar is a magnifying glass that provides a search of the calendar.

I can search the calendar for name of the relative (full name, first name, last name), the FamilySearch PID, and I can even filter out my husbands family by searching for "- Scott". Here is a section of the calendar a few years out.

So what about relatives where I only know a birth year or a birth month/year, but don't know the specific date? The Church policy for requesting ordinances is the end of that birth year or the end of the month of that birth month/year.

For a birth in October 1924, I create an event for October 31, 2034.
For a birth in 1930, I create an event for December 31, 2040.

I have also in the past created events for the beginning of those month/years or years.

For an example: Birth in 1914, I may create an event for January 1, 1924. Then I spend time researching that relative again to see if I can find a more specific date with newer available records since my older research. If I can, I change the event to that specific date. If I cannot, I change the event to the end of the year.

And sometimes I look ahead in the calendar to the end of a month or end of a year to see if there are individuals I can revisit with my research.

Event Notification

This is what the email looks like when I get notified of a 110th birthday.

***

This has been a great solution for my needs. I am able to keep track of all the relatives I add to the Family Tree who still need temple work; which I don't yet have permission to do. When I get an email of their 110th birthday it is a powerful reminder of the temple ordinances that may still need to be offered for this relative. As I finish the final preparations to their Family Tree record, oftentimes the spiritual impressions are so very powerful. I literally know of my relative's preparedness to receive temple ordinances.

Do you have any questions or additional suggestions?

How about you? Will this work for you?

Please leave a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Permission Required: Update to FamilySearch

I have been waiting for this update to FamilySearch for a few months and I happened upon it yesterday. This update is for those who have LDS account access to FamilySearch as it pertains to temple ordinances. At the end of this blog post is a link to a video about Latter-day Saint Temples and their purpose and why we participate in ordinances on behalf of our deceased family members. I encourage you to watch this video.

Now, on to what I discovered yesterday. When I select the "Person page" for a relative who was born within the past 110 years and select the "Ordinances" tab, I now see this highlighted notification. 

"When a person was born within 110 years, policy requires that you be a close living relative to reserve his or her ordinances. A close relative is a spouse, parent, child, or sibling. To do this person's ordinances you must request permission through FamilySearch. Please be prepared to document your relationship to the person with permission from a close relative."

The language "you must request permission through FamilySearch" and "please be prepared to document your relationship" and "with permission from a close relative" is all new language.

I clicked on the "View My Relationship" link under the relative's name.

The following screen opened up to show my relationship to this individual. He is my grand-uncle. I am not one of the closest living relatives and I will need permission from either a spouse, parent, child, or sibling of my grand-uncle.

Under "Effective Ordinances" I clicked on "Request Ordinances".

Again I get the same notification as stated above.

I clicked on the "Request Permission" link within the "Permission Required" box and I get this new screen.

The program has already identified that I am not a close relative. Notice the language at the beginning of the page: "Because you are not a close relative (a spouse, parent, child, or sibling) and he or she was born less than 110 years ago, the reservation request needs to be reviewed. When the review is completed, you will be contacted. All fields on the form must be completed to submit."

I already know my relationship to the deceased. Clifford is my grand-uncle.

Notice the language under the box describing my relationship: "By submitting this form, you are certifying that you have received permission from a close living relative (a spouse, parent, child, or sibling of the deceased) to perform these temple ordinances. Please provide the name, contact information, and relationship to the deceased of the one granting permission. FamilySearch reserves the right to contact the person granting permission, if necessary."

In the following box I need to provide the name and contact information of the person granting permission and their relationship to the deceased. FamilySearch may use this information to contact the person granting permission. All boxes have to be complete before the Submit button will be activated for selecting. 

Since I have not yet reached out to the closest family members, I cannot complete this page. I do not know how long the review process takes, nor what the contact process is like to be notified if I am able to complete these ordinances.

LOOPHOLE:

I did notice that if I ignore the "Permission Required" box and just click on the big blue "Request" button, I am taken to this page. Which is the current Church Policy for requesting temple ordinances. 

This page no longer has check boxes for me to indicate that I am the closest relative or I have permission from the closest relative. I do not know if the assumption is being made that if I just click on the "Request" button that I'm the closest relative? I am concerned that members may just ignore the "Permission Required" box and the new requesting permission process and just request the ordinances. I wonder if this new process is not yet complete?

What are your thoughts? Please share in the comment section below.

Enjoy this video about LDS Temples: