Question
Gramps,
Where does a person go to find out if the temple work was done in different places? It looks like my GGF and GGM work was done in 1965, 1975, and 1981 by different families.
Sherri
Answer
Dear Sherri,
How wonderful that your extended family is so eager to complete temple work.
Duplication of efforts used to be such a problem! In a 2005 conference talk, President Gordon B. Hinckley expressed this concern that members of the Church were duplicating efforts.
One of the most troublesome aspects of our temple activity is that as we get more and more temples scattered across the earth 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. They do not know that those in other areas are doing the same thing. We, therefore, have been engaged for some time in a very difficult undertaking. To avoid such duplication, the solution lies in complex computer technology. Preliminary indications are that it will work, and if this is so, it will be a truly remarkable thing with worldwide implications.
The complex computer technology President Hinckley mentioned bore fruit as the Temple Ready program. Now each name is available for temple work only if that work has not already been done by someone.
Until recently, all of the proxy temple work done for someone was viewable on Family Search. However, Family Search now shows the first applicable ordinance done.
For example, my third great grandfather Sidney was actually baptized by missionaries in 1833. For years, his records showed about 20 duplicated proxy baptisms done for him (all done in error because he was already baptized.) Now, Family Search only shows his baptismal date of January 3, 1833.
You can find the ordinance dates for your family by logging into Family Search, selecting “Person” for the family member in question, and then going to the “Ordinances” tab on his or her record.
Hope that helps and may God continue to bless you in your family history efforts.
Gramps
