- Duplicating temple ordinances for ancestors is inefficient and wastes precious resources, as each set of ordinances requires about 8 hours of effort. - Green arrows indicating temple work is needed on FamilySearch are not always accurate. Careful research is required to verify relationships and avoid duplicating ordinances that have already been completed. - Sources like birth, marriage, and death records should be found and attached to an individual's profile to prove their identities and relationships before completing temple ordinances. Census records alone are not sufficient.

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. What to Look for
that should give you caution
before clicking on a green arrow.
Some
Examples

6. Green arrows indicate someone
needs temple work,
but they are often not correct

7. “A record worthy of all
acceptation”What is wrong with this pedigree?

8. 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

9. What is wrong in this family?

10. 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

11. What else is wrong in this family?

12. What else is wrong in this family?
“Samuel” is shown as female, “Rosemary” is shown as male

13. Same family—what is wrong?

14. Same family—what is wrong?
This person,
Rosemary, was sealed
to the wrong parents

15. What is wrong with
reserving this ordinance?

16. What is wrong with
reserving this ordinance?
“ Martha” is really a female, not a male as shown

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

18. Hmmmm?
Extreme gender confusion!

19. Thank heaven this isn’t
your family

20. Someone actually put this
into Family Tree
Two people listed
as both female and
male. Research is
needed.

21. Search for Sources
to Prove Gender

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

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

24. RESEARCH PAYS OFF!
Richard Helen is a “Miss”

25. Attach the source to the person
listed as a female

26. Now delete the bogus person
Follow the same process
for poor Martha

27. What is wrong in this family?

28. What is wrong in this family?
There don’t appear to
be any obvious
errors. Everything
“looks” plausible.

29. What is wrong in this family?
This person belongs in a
different family. Only
research can confirm
everyone in a family really
belongs.

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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!

38. 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 ...

39. We will sort it out in the
millennium? Hardly!
6778
Years
of
WASTED
Effort