In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we believe in performing ordinances, such as baptism, on behalf of those who have died without the opportunity to receive the gospel. We believe this makes it possible for those who choose to accept them to return to live one day with Heavenly Father (read more about this at the Mormon.org website.
To submit names to the Temple, you must currently use a program called TempleReady . This program is only available at Family History Centers and the main Family History Library. The guide below will help you prepare to submit your names to the Temple using the TempleReady software. The list below outlines the steps you will need to take (at a high level) to prepare your names for temple submission. Each step is explored in more detail further along the page:
When doing any family history work, you want to start with what you know. You can gather information from your own home and family to help you see what information you have. Use this information to compile your own Pedigree Chart showing a generational view of your ancestors. Or you may wish to enter the information on a Family Group Sheet .
It's important that you find and record as much information as possible about your ancestors before submitting those names to the Temple. At minimum, you should have a first and last name, date and place of birth, date and place of death, and if applicable a date and place of a marriage event. Ancestors must be deceased for one full year before you may do Temple Work for them.
Personal Ancestral File (PAF) is a free genealogy software program available for download from the Family Search website . The PAF computer program allows you to enter genealogical information about individuals, and link them together into family groups. Additionally, you can store images, notes, source information, and other data about an ancestor. Using the information in the database, you can print charts and reports, and even create books or websites!
Data must be in PAF format before you can run TempleReady . The easiest way to do this is to create a new PAF database for your submission file. You can enter individuals and link family groups without the clutter of other names you might have in your genealogy files.
If you have created a new PAF database for the names you wish to submit, the easiest way to create your data file is to use "File - Save As" to save your ".paf" file to a diskette, flash drive, or CD-ROM. If you are using a single database for all of your name, you will have to export the selected names to a "GEDCOM" file (see the GEDCOM definition on our main page). With a GEDCOM file, you will have to import it into the PAF program at the Family History Center before you can run TempleReady .
TempleReady is a computer program that helps you prepare names to be sent to the Temple for ordinance work. It uses the Ordinance Index to check for names that already have their temple work completed. The TempleReady program can only be found in Family History Centers. To run TempleReady , open your PAF file and click "TempleReady" icon on the toolbar.
Once launched, the TempleReady program will:
The Family History Department in in the process of rolling out a new version of the popular Family Search program. This "New Family Search" program will allow you to complete the TempleReady process over the internet, instead of only allowing you to run the program at the Family History Centers or Library. More information will be coming in 2008 about the program - so please keep checking our website for news and updates!