nonmember head of household shows up weird in online directory

There's a sister in our ward whose last name starts with S. Her nonmember husband's last name starts with B. In the online directory (the new directory), the alphabet shortcut along the side shows "A B S B C D E F G...". The B's are split in the middle by an S, and then the alphabet continues normally.

If I scroll the list, I see all the B members, then see the B nonmember and member spouse, then see the remaining B members. The B nonmember has an S header before their name, presumably because the member's last name starts with S.

I've noticed the same thing. Several of our ward members are from Mongolia. They generally don't take their husbands last name when they get married. All those whose husbands are not church members have their name show up under a special alphabetical category that begins with their husbands last name's first letter.

Good to know I'm not the only one seeing this. Does anyone involved with software development for lds.org monitor these forums? I've tried submitting feedback via the website before but never hear anything back so I figured I'd try the forum.

I'm seeing the same thing. I haven't noticed it before, so maybe this is recent.

sasgrw wrote: I've tried submitting feedback via the website before but never hear anything back so I figured I'd try the forum.

Submitting feedback via the website is the proper method and they probably received it. A few months ago someone remarked that they are swamped with feedback reports. It is probably in the cue to fix. Occasionally someone sees the posts here, as well, but some development areas are more active than others as far as Forum interface goes.

mfmohlma wrote:I'm seeing the same thing. I haven't noticed it before, so maybe this is recent.

I have seen this since I started using the online directory shortly after its inception.

This is on the list for our next release. One follow-up question though. Once you click on the household, do the names display correctly (e.g. Husband with his correct last name, wife with hers, etc.)? Feel free to PM me the information if you want to use the couples actual names in the example.

jdcr256 wrote:Once you click on the household, do the names display correctly (e.g. Husband with his correct last name, wife with hers, etc.)?

I do not recall having a problem in this area. It was just the last name sort display from which to select for me.

jdcr256 wrote: One follow-up question though. Once you click on the household, do the names display correctly (e.g. Husband with his correct last name, wife with hers, etc.)?

In the single case in our ward the names do display correctly in the right column for the family data.

The difference in our ward situation is a bit different. The non-member husband's last name is Pxxxxxx and the member sister's last name is Mxxxxxx. The household is listed in the "Filter Results" section under the letter "M" but with the non-member husbands last name, Pxxxxxx. In the right household data column the household name Mxxxxxx is listed and the individual names are displayed correctly.

Can one of you who can confirm they have a unit that currently displays this problem send me the unit number? I need some more test cases to confirm that this is fixed before we deploy the fix to production.

PM sent...

I also sent a PM.

Thanks to all those who sent me unit numbers. The bug has been fixed and is expected to be deployed to prod some time next week.

This fix is now deployed, so these households should be showing up correctly. Let me know if you notice any other problems.

Indeed, for the one ward in our stake that had the problem, the household names are now sorted and listed correctly.

Thanks for the fix and the clear communication!

That fixed ours also.

Looks good for mine too. Thanks for fixing it.

The alphabetized list appears to be correct on our ward names. However, there is still a minor problem. I think it needs to be fixed with data in our ward clerks office not necessarily a bug with the directory. We have a couple of names when you click on the name listing the family to display the info (both cases are part member families with the husband being the non-member) the display then shows the household names as being the members last name not the alphabetized head of household name.

Example: under J the name Johnson is clicked and the display then shows the maiden name of wife in bold at the top (which begins with G). Her name is listed below with the last name Johnson; the name displayed at the top of the record is not found in the details, I know her maiden name is the name listed as the family name on top of record.

The other example is similar. The listing is alphabetized under T (husband's last name) but when record is clicked the display shows the wife's name as the family name in bold (her maiden name begins with A), but in this case the wife's maiden name is listed as her last name with husband having his last name as the one beginning with T.

jhowell2000 wrote:The alphabetized list appears to be correct on our ward names. However, there is still a minor problem. I think it needs to be fixed with data in our ward clerks office not necessarily a bug with the directory.

I think you're right about that. Note that MLS stores a value for the Household name, which is separate from the names for individuals. The household name will typically match the last name of the husband or the wife, but it is not enforced by MLS. So if you go into MLS and examine the Household Record for these families, I think you'll be able to see what's going on and resolve any inconsistencies.

The situation in our ward is the second scenario. The sister is the member and the husband is a non-member. The sister's last name is Mxxxxxx. The husbands last name is Pxxxxxx. The household created in MLS only includes the sister and she is the head of household. The sister's last name appears in the LDS.ORG directory household details section as the household last name, just as it is in MLS. The husband is not listed in MLS as a member of the household. However the household is listed in the "Filter Results" section in the husband's last name. He is also listed in the LDS.ORG directory as the head of household. This situation is the one where the marriage record in CMIS is used to create the LDS.ORG directory household rather than the household as created in MLS.

It appears that for this situation there is convergence of information from both CMIS and MLS that creates a confusing listing in the directory and in the household details of the directory. Anyone not familiar with the sister's situation will be really confused when using the directory and most likely will not even be able to find her.

i have a situation where the wife shows up in the directory under the surname of her former non-member husband, EVEN THOUGH

1- the marriage was terminated properly in MLS
2- the non-member husband's temporary record has been removed, and
3- the wife has only her maiden name in "full name", "maiden name", and "preferred name" and is listed as the head of household in MLS.

when i turned to local unit support to correct it (since there is nothing else i can do about it), i received a response that "lds.org is a self sustaining web site and there is no real updates that can be done manual by us", and they went on to suggest that i do a local unit refresh and maybe that would fix it after a day or two. am i missing something here? my understanding of a local unit refresh was that data comes down from slc to my local MLS, not the other way around, so i don't see how that would change anything in the online directory when everything was already correct in MLS. any other ideas?

Have you gone to the household record in MLS and checked the name of the household itself?

aebrown wrote:Have you gone to the household record in MLS and checked the name of the household itself?

ah yes, you've made this point before, but only now does it sink in -- i only checked the name of the head of household, but overlooked that the name of the household is separately editable and apparently not linked...so that should fix it -- thanks!