Tech Forum

There is this member that has recorded a sealing to her parents in the Houston Texas Temple on 2002, but such ordinance never took place; she’s never been to Houston. She’s been trying to get seal to her parents all these years but has been unable because they say it’s been done. Hope y’all can help.

marioajg wrote: ↑Sun Dec 22, 2024 11:06 am There is this member that has recorded a sealing to her parents in the Houston Texas Temple on 2002, but such ordinance never took place; she’s never been to Houston. She’s been trying to get seal to her parents all these years but has been unable because they say it’s been done. Hope y’all can help.

Because this is only a user-to-user discussion forum, it's not likely that anyone with authority to do anything substantial will ever see this thread. If she has not already contacted the temple about the situation, that would be a good idea. Just a guess, but I would think the temple recorder would be the person who would be the most help, at least initially.

Here's another idea that might shed some light. If she searches for herself on Family Search, are there any persons there who match her name and date of birth (and perhaps parents, etc.) but are showing up on Family Search as deceased?

Added after initially posting: If she finds a match, please don't post the Family Search PID here, because that would expose this member's information.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for people to enter someone and then assume they are deceased so they can do the work. FamilySearch instructs to not assume anyone is deceased until 110 years after their birth year. A distant cousin entered my 90-yr-old father as deceased and was non-responsive to my requests for him to go in and mark that record as living (as he is very much alive). I had to provide feedback to FamilySearch for them to change the record from deceased to living. It took a month or two, but was corrected.

If she does find a "duplicate" of herself, I recommend she reach out to FamilySearch through the feedback at the bottom of any page (or through the hamburger menu on the app) and ask for the record to be deleted or marked as living. That should clear the block preventing her from being sealed to her parents. Even if she doesn't find a duplicate, feedback to FamilySearch should be able to clear it up. If it was me, I would provide my FamilySearch record number along with the record numbers of my parents and enough information that they can understand what the problem is.

There's a bigger issue: According to FamilySearch policy "You must obtain permission from a close living relative before performing temple ordinances for someone who was born within the last 110 years."

Assuming this wasn't just a recordkeeping error, someone needs to taken to task for violating policy. That would be FamilySearch's job if it turns out OP's is listed as deceased in FamilyTree.

russellhltn wrote: ↑Mon Dec 23, 2024 12:53 am There's a bigger issue: According to FamilySearch policy "You must obtain permission from a close living relative before performing temple ordinances for someone who was born within the last 110 years."

Assuming this wasn't just a recordkeeping error, someone needs to taken to task for violating policy. That would be FamilySearch's job if it turns out OP's is listed as deceased in FamilyTree.

True, but I don't think the controls were as stringent back in 2002 when this originally happened.

True, but I don't think the controls were as stringent back in 2002 when this originally happened

Yes, the 110 rule was issued by the First Presidency and announced by the FamilySearch Data Quality team at RootsTech when my wife and I were serving in the data quality zone during our 2011-2012 mission. Three data quality employees and two missionaries (of which I was one) were there to answer questions from the group at RootsTech.