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In a leadership session at RootsTech 2018, Sister Joy D. Jones and Elder Donald L. Hallstrom spoke about children participating in family history and temple work. Sister Jones stated, “Primary children have begun submitting names to the temple – either for family members to perform the ordinances, or in preparation for their own twelfth birthday when they can receive their limited-use temple recommends and perform the baptisms and confirmations themselves. Children with experience in family history are excited to go to the temple not only to experience the sacredness of the Lord’s house, but also because they feel a connection to their ancestors and want to perform their ordinances for them.”^[1]

Isn’t it wonderful that children are now able to access the power of temple and family history work at such young ages? Much of this miracle is due to the FamilySearch website with its user-friendly interface and innovations to help members find names for the temple.

If you’re not sure how to help your children learn to submit names to the temple in preparation for their first visit to the temple, here are some ideas.

A good first step is to talk with children often about stories of ancestors. Learning family history starts with stories. The more children hear about their ancestors, the more they feel connected to them and desire to learn about them. Stories help children’s hearts turn toward their ancestors.

President Nelson said, “It’s wonderful to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers by telling important family history stories in ways that are accessible and memorable …However, if we leave it at that level, we haven’t really done enough… If our collections of stories and photos should ever become an end point in themselves—if we know who our ancestors are, know marvelous things about them, but we leave them stranded on the other side without their ordinances—such diversion will not be of any help to our ancestors who remain confined in their spirit prison.”^[2]

Learning about FamilySearch Family Tree

The next step for helping children submit names to the temple is to help them become familiar with the FamilySearch Family Tree. They can begin by creating an account, adding their own photo, and viewing themselves as part of a family tree that includes their parents, grandparents, and ancestors. They can click on the arrows to expand their family tree in landscape view and see the names of ancestors and places they lived.

It is helpful for children to understand why the FamilySearch Family Tree was created. The purpose of the collaborative Family Tree database is to provide a “record of our dead, worthy of all acceptation.”^[3] It was created to reduce the amount of temple work that was duplicated as church members all over the world submit names of ancestors. FamilySearch Family Tree is a collaborative tree which allows people to work together to add information about their ancestors, then reserve the temple work that they would like to do for their own relatives.

Children Can Help Improve the Accuracy of Family Tree

We should strive to make our contributions to FamilySearch Family Tree as accurate as possible, with sources attached to ancestor’s profiles showing where information was obtained. Children can work together with their parents and other family members to help improve the accuracy of Family Tree, by locating places where information is incomplete.

FamilySearch has brightly colored icons showing when information may be incomplete for a particular individual or where research opportunities are awaiting. Children can gain familiarity with FamilySearch Family Tree by looking for these icons, making a list, and sharing it with their parents or other adults.

Research Icons

Record Hints: This teal icon indicates that an indexed record seems to match a person in Family Tree and could be attached to their profile. The record may contain more information about the person, and possibly additional family members who need temple work done.
Research Suggestions: This purple icon indicates that more research could be done to verify the identity of a person. For example, no sources are attached, there is a possible missing child, the person could have married again, etc.
Data Problems: This red exclamation point icon indicates that some data is missing or doesn’t look right. For example, the marriage year for one spouse shows the person as less than 12 years of age, the birth year for a child occurs after the mother’s child-bearing years, or a standardized date or place is missing, etc.

Temple Ordinance Icons

Available temple ordinances: This green temple icon indicates that ordinances for a particular person are available to be reserved.
Needs Information: This orange temple icon indicates that ordinances for a particular person have not been completed but more information is needed before they can be reserved.
In Progress: This turquoise temple icon indicates that ordinances for a particular person have been reserved by someone else.

FamilySearch Icons Scavenger Hunt

Searching for the icons in FamilySearch is a simple way for children to start learning how to use FamilySearch Family Tree. A basic scavenger hunt children can start with is to simply find each icon in FamilySearch, write down the ancestor’s name and ID number, then talk with a parent about what each icon means. Here is a printable scavenger hunt with a picture of each icon:

Alternatively, a child could make a list of ten ancestors who have the research suggestions icon, share it with a parent, pray together to be guided about which relative to research, then work together to find the information needed to prepare names for the temple.

Another possible scavenger hunt is to search for ten temple icons, whether they be green (available) or orange (needs more information), then record the names and ID numbers of the relatives with the icon. Together with a parent, the child can pray for help to verify the dates, places, and sources of information for the people whose temple work is ready to reserve. For those who need more information, parents can determine what kind of research project might be needed to discover the missing information.

In the leadership session at RootsTech 2018, Elder Hallstrom spoke about the ideal that families, including children, can research their ancestors together then perform their ordinances in the temple together. He said, “Here is the ideal. A family together researchers their ancestry, connecting them with those who have come before with stories of faith, sacrifice and perseverance. Family names are prepared for temple ordinances, with parents and adult children holding temple recommends, and youth over the age of twelve holding limited-use recommends, the family together attends the temple and baptismal and confirmation ordinances are performed. Ordination, endowment, and sealing ordinances are subsequently performed by the adult members of the family.”

Elder Hallstrom continued, “We all have a vital place in this process. And importantly, do not forget our children. Engaging them from the youngest of ages and as they grow in understanding and spiritual sensitivity and opportunity, will bless them forever. The seeds of the gospel will be planted and nurtured and will bloom with beauty.”^[4]

It is truly a beautiful thing to work together as a family to find names for the temple.

Notes:

^[1] Leadership Session at RootsTech 2018: Elder Donald L. Hallstrom and Sister Joy Jones, video online, LDS.org (https://www.lds.org/family-history/video/leadership-session-at-rootstech-2018-elder-hallstrom-and-sister-jones : accessed 11 October 2018).

^[2] President Russell M. and Sister Wendy Nelson, RootsTech Family Discovery Day – Opening Session 2017, video and transcription online, LDS.org (https://www.lds.org/topics/family-history/familydiscoveryday/nelson : cessed 11 October 2018).

^[3] Elder Allan F. Packer, “The Book,” October 2014 General Conference, LDS.org, (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/the-book : accessed 11 October 2018)

^[4] Leadership Session at RootsTech 2018: Elder Donald L. Hallstrom and Sister Joy Jones, video online, LDS.org (https://www.lds.org/family-history/video/leadership-session-at-rootstech-2018-elder-hallstrom-and-sister-jones : accessed 11 October 2018).