Blessing Certificate Search

I understand that MLS does not record blessing information and that if the baby's name is in the record the blessing has, most likely been done. The question is then, is there any way to create a search to find babies whose blessing certificate has not been printed.

No. There is no practical way to do that.

Not unless your ward is keeping a copy of the ordnance form on file and annotating that the certificate was completed.

In our ward, we keep a PDF of each certificate printed. This has actually been helpful on occasion.

Wish the church would automatically generate PDFs that each member could access simply by logging in to LDS.org tools with their LDS Account – certificates, patriarchal blessing, priesthood line of authority, IOS, etc.

I like your idea of easy access to the original original certificates. The scanning process would have to take place at the local ward level and then uploaded to church HQ servers. A little bit of training and a scanner coupled with a tweak in MLS and it can be done.

On a side note. I was wishing I had a digital recorded copy of my patriarchal blessing, you know like an mp3 of the actual blessing. I would love to be able to listen to it from time to time as opposed to reading. Do the patriarchs submit the audio to HQ, if not that could very easily with a similar tweak as the PDF certificates would require.

Anyone know where to submit ideas like this to?

jasonmcdonald wrote:I like your idea of easy access to the original original certificates. The scanning process would have to take place at the local ward level and then uploaded to church HQ servers. A little bit of training and a scanner coupled with a tweak in MLS and it can be done.

I guess it depends on the value the Church would place on these stored certificates. What you are calling a "tweak in MLS" would most likely require a significant amount of work in MLS, and much, much more work on the back end to receive, store, and archive the received images.

jasonmcdonald wrote:On a side note. I was wishing I had a digital recorded copy of my patriarchal blessing, you know like an mp3 of the actual blessing. I would love to be able to listen to it from time to time as opposed to reading. Do the patriarchs submit the audio to HQ, if not that could very easily with a similar tweak as the PDF certificates would require.

Patriarchs do not submit the audio to CHQ. One challenge with your proposal is that the audio is not the official blessing. Patriarchs review the transcript of the recording and make changes. Those changes are mostly just corrections to grammar, awkward sentences, or misspoken words or phrases. But they can include substantial changes, such as deletions or additions. Not until this inspired process is complete is the patriarchal blessing finished. That written copy is the official blessing.

I'm guessing that if some people had access to the audio of their blessing, some of these changes might bother them. And uploading, storing, and archiving all these audio files would be another significant development project. The cost would have to be weighed against the benefits. But I certainly can understand why you might appreciate having the audio.

jasonmcdonald wrote:Anyone know where to submit ideas like this to?

You can submit any ideas using the Feedback link at the bottom of the home page of LDS.org.

jasonmcdonald wrote:I like your idea of easy access to the original original certificates. The scanning process would have to take place at the local ward level and then uploaded to church HQ servers. A little bit of training and a scanner coupled with a tweak in MLS and it can be done.

I was thinking that the certificate could just be generated digitally and accessible to the member (whether or not they have a leadership calling) – no scanning required. But I guess there wouldn't be any signature... didn't think about that.