Grandma baptized without permission


FamilyHistoryWannabe
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The system is being so abused I think that upon submittal you should have to prove that your are directly related and submit the digital signature of the the closest relative.  Hitting just the one "I have permission" button is so easy blow past.

IMO, the data is there to go a lot farther; my father's ordinances were reserved and submitted by some random stranger. The system obviously knew that he had a living, member son, (me) and two living siblings. (I had made sure all their records were correct shortly after I was baptized, but didn't see any reason to reserve his records at that time, since I had to wait, and no one else should have touched it without my permission or his siblings'.) Considering that one of those three had an active account, (and children are closer than siblings in the list on FS; only spouse is closer, and they divorced before his death.) it would be a relatively simple matter to have it check whether a spouse, child or sibling is living and has an active account, and if so, hold the reservation request and send that person a request to approve the reservation.

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IMO, the data is there to go a lot farther; my father's ordinances were reserved and submitted by some random stranger. The system obviously knew that he had a living, member son, (me) and two living siblings. (I had made sure all their records were correct shortly after I was baptized, but didn't see any reason to reserve his records at that time, since I had to wait, and no one else should have touched it without my permission or his siblings'.) Considering that one of those three had an active account, (and children are closer than siblings in the list on FS; only spouse is closer, and they divorced before his death.) it would be a relatively simple matter to have it check whether a spouse, child or sibling is living and has an active account, and if so, hold the reservation request and send that person a request to approve the reservation.

A little off topic...but, one thing I did when something was reserved by a stranger for my family. I just sent an email to that person and asked if they were a part of the family that I didn't know about and if not, if they would mind if I did the work. This person immediately emailed me back and told me she unreserved it for me to do.

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A little off topic...but, one thing I did when something was reserved by a stranger for my family. I just sent an email to that person and asked if they were a part of the family that I didn't know about and if not, if they would mind if I did the work. This person immediately emailed me back and told me she unreserved it for me to do.

 

I tried that; the delay of giving her 48 hours to respond cost me the chance at almost all of the ordinances.  When I contacted FHC, they jumped on it right away and actually got temple workers on two continents to pull the participants doing his and his father's endowments out of their sessions within minutes of my call so I would at least still have that one for each of them.  I still haven't heard a word from the woman who reserved and submitted them, and everyone closer than third cousins has been accounted for, so she's certainly not close family.

 

Frankly, that example of "temple worthy" behavior has cost me any chance I might have had of getting that side of the family interested in the Gospel.

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I tried that; the delay of giving her 48 hours to respond cost me the chance at almost all of the ordinances.  When I contacted FHC, they jumped on it right away and actually got temple workers on two continents to pull the participants doing his and his father's endowments out of their sessions within minutes of my call so I would at least still have that one for each of them.  I still haven't heard a word from the woman who reserved and submitted them, and everyone closer than third cousins has been accounted for, so she's certainly not close family.

 

Frankly, that example of "temple worthy" behavior has cost me any chance I might have had of getting that side of the family interested in the Gospel.

 

I had similar results: I emailed the guy who submitted my Grandma's name and got no response.  Talking the FHC got the remaining ordinances stopped.

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  • 5 months later...

First thing I did when I got baptised was start importing my already existing Ancestry account to familysearch and start preparing to start doing the Temple work for my family. I was really very happy to think about havin my son do my grandfather's work. My grandfather passed less than 15 years ago at the time and my son actually shares his birthdate. I quickly found out someone else did the work-and should not have as there are no relatives that anyone knows of who are in the church, (other than myself and husband and children). A recent convert cousin of mine found the same thing with HIS grandfather-same person who won't respond to emails.

Ironically, on my mother's paternal side-the one with many LDS relatives in Utah and Iowa-there's a lot of Temple work left to be done!

It was a little painful, so yeah the same thing has happened here.

Edited by Floridagal
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  • 2 years later...
On 1/11/2015 at 3:59 PM, FamilyHistoryWannabe said:

Hello all,

 

I recently stated working on my family history.  I was building my family tree in FamilySearch and I noticed my grandmother's temple work was actively being done.  This makes me very upset, as my mother is still alive and a staunch Baptist who would totally not approve her mom's work being done (she still not comfortable with my own conversion).

 

Is there anything I can do? 

 

I don't know how to tell who submitted the names, and my grandma has no LDS relatives besides myself.  Best I can tell someone submitted the names in a mass group and aren't doing themselves (baptism, confirmation, and initiatory were done on 3 different continents).  If this were some long dead relative I won't be bothered as much, but it's my grandma...

in family search go to your gramma's record and click ordinances. The person who reserved them should show. If not then you will see which temple is involved. If multiple temples are shown their name has been released to the temple by a relative. Contact FS and ask them if they can identify that person.

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While it would be different if it were my grandmother, who I actually remember and have a personal relationship with, anytime I see that someone else has done/reserved work for my family/ancestors, my first thought is essentially, 'Alright! One less person I have to research/worry about!'

Can you tell that I am pretty much the most zealous family history buff ever?  :D

Edited by person0
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On 2018-04-13 at 2:04 PM, person0 said:

While it would be different if it were my grandmother, who I actually remember and have a personal relationship with, anytime I see that someone else has done/reserved work for my family/ancestors, my first thought is essentially, 'Alright! One less person I have to research/worry about!'

Can you tell that I am pretty much the most zealous family history buff ever?  :D

Why does no one ever hijack my family history? Please someone steal some of my ancestors and do their work for them!

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On 4/13/2018 at 1:04 PM, person0 said:

While it would be different if it were my grandmother, who I actually remember and have a personal relationship with, anytime I see that someone else has done/reserved work for my family/ancestors, my first thought is essentially, 'Alright! One less person I have to research/worry about!'

Can you tell that I am pretty much the most zealous family history buff ever?  :D

Conversely, my first thought is, "Alright!  More time to find the rest of them!"

Except for that one time I went to do the work for a cousin of my great-grandmother, only to see that it had somehow been done before her death.  Since I was working off of a memoir type document she (my great grandmother's cousin) had written and had seen zero mention of the Church or any religion at all, I was confused and concerned.  I all but marched myself along the Mormon Trail to talk to Church Headquarters about it. It took me probably a full 40 hours of searching (over a couple of years) to realize that she had actually joined the Church.  So, she had received her own endowments while still alive.  I still get frustrated that she didn't mention anything.  At all.  Anywhere.  Like not even a "I know I'll be with him again" when speaking about the death of her ten year old son.  Definitely convinced me to be more open about my own testimony and affiliation with the Church in my journals, though.  I don't want some distant relative forty years after I die going, "Wait?  She was Mormon?!" six years after they read my life story.

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On 1/11/2015 at 6:32 PM, Just_A_Guy said:

 

If FamilySearch will let you, reserve her name for ordinances yourself (you don't actually have to do the ordinances; just reserve the name).  If her name is already showing "reserved", I would contact the FamilySearch customer service desk at 1-866-406-1830.  They'll probably have to transfer you a few times; but eventually they should be able to get you to someone who can solve the problem.

What temple was the previous work done at?  Maybe call the temple, explain the situation, and put a "stop" on it, if possible.

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