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AncestorsWaiting.com Combs LDS Genealogy Database to Quickly Identify Ancestors to Take to the Temple
4/26/2010 12:00:00 AM
April 26, 2010 - AncestorsWaiting.com is a valuable web site that gives members of the LDS Church a quick and easy way to identify ancestors they can take to the temple for ordinance work. AncestorsWaiting.com ties directly to new.FamilySearch.org, the well-known and comprehensive genealogy database built and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons.
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April 26, 2010, Springville UT - AncestorsWaiting.com is a valuable web site that gives members of the LDS Church a quick and easy way to identify ancestors they can take to the temple for ordinance work. AncestorsWaiting.com ties directly to new.FamilySearch.org, the well-known and comprehensive genealogy database built and maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as Mormons.
The new web site has been certified by FamilySearch for temple ordinance work. (Note: AncestorsWaiting was available during its beta and early launch phase as "OneClickTempleTrip"; the name and primary URL have changed but its robust feature set remains the same.)
AncestorsWaiting.com Quickly Identifies Ancestors in FamilySearch
The FamilySearch database encompasses billions of Church records documenting family events such as birth, baptism, marriage, sealing, death, and more. The system is currently only accessible by LDS Church members.
All the user has to do is enter his or her New FamilySearch or LDS.org username and password. AncestorsWaiting.com then instantly constructs the family tree from new.FamilySearch data, combs through their pedigree to locate kindred dead requiring specified temple ordinances, and quickly synchronizes with FamilySearch to reserve the ordinances. All of this can be done on a home computer prior to going to the temple.
Without AncestorsWaiting, users must perform arduous individual look-ups in the FamilySearch database, hunting for icons in the family tree that indicate work to be done, examining each individual record to determine if the work needed matches the temple work planned, and repeating the process until the desired ordinances are identified.
AncestorsWaiting.com automatically performs all these steps, taking as little as 1/15th the amount of time per name searched. The value of time saved is tremendous! Users must have a username and password for access to new.FamilySearch.org in order to use AncestorsWaiting.com. A full year of access costs just $24.95.
Experts Say AncestorsWaiting Simplifies Their Preparations for Temple Work
"Complexity is the primary challenge for 98 percent of Latter-day Saint members trying to unravel their family history to identify ancestors for Temple work," said Mark Mugleston, Editor-in-Chief of Mormon Entrepreneur. "AncestorsWaiting.com removes the ambiguity of family history, prepares your family members for temple submission, and points you directly to the temple."
BYU Professor Dee Gardner said, "The real epiphany for me was that AncestorsWaiting was saving me precious time, allowing me to focus my family history and temple energy on actual ordinance work, rather than on trying to understand records, taking classes, or any of the other issues that always seem to hold me back."
About the Developer, OneGreatFamily.com
OneGreatFamily.com was founded in 1999 by Alan Eaton. Eaton recently received the "Computing that Serves" Alumni Award from the BYU Computer Science Department. This prestigious award is for "contributions to the field of computer science that make a positive difference in people's lives."
The company's flagship site, www.OneGreatFamily.com, is focused on matching and merging all of the separate family trees created by genealogists into one single unified worldwide family tree. This single family tree removes all duplication while maintaining all differences in conclusions that genealogists draw from the research evidence. Today more than 214,000,000 individuals have been submitted in family trees to OneGreatFamily.com. That database is entirely separate from AncestorsWaiting.com and the NewFamilySearch database maintained by the LDS Church. OneGreatFamily.com is privately held, based in Springville, Utah and has approximately 35 employees.
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Note for editors: "AncestorsWaiting" is spelled as one word.
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How AncestorsWaiting.com Works
Ø Visit AncestorsWaiting.com and enter your FamilySearch or LDS Account credentials. AncestorsWaiting will use New FamilySearch data to automatically construct your family tree.
Ø Specify the ordinance work you would like to do on your next Temple trip. For example, you might specify a male endowment or 5 eternal marriages (sealing to spouse).
Compare this to the manual, time-consuming equivalent process at NewFamilySearch, where family trees are organized as pedigree charts, and there is no tool to highlight just the ancestors in need of proxy work. To find an ancestor there, you must look through all pedigree charts for a special symbol. Each person's data must be opened and reviewed individually to see which ordinances are missing. If the ancestor does not require the desired ordinance, repeat the process until you find someone that does.
Ø After successfully identifying the ancestors to fulfill your requirement, you can easily review the selections and perform Church-required reviews. Then, reserve those ordinances and print Family Ordinance Request (FOR) paperwork to take the temple on your next visit.
Ø Once you've joined AncestorsWaiting.com, you have a full year of access, so you can identify many ancestors who are in need of temple work.
Ø At the temple the Temple recorder will scan the FOR and print the necessary cards while you wait.
How to Get FamilySearch Credentials (if needed)
Ø Verify your Membership Record Number by asking either your Membership Clerk or Ward Clerk. Your Membership Record Number is also printed on your Temple Recommend.
Ø Go to www.new.familysearch.org. Click on the link labeled "Register for the new FamilySearch" and complete the process.
Claire LaBeaux
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