Latitude/Longitude Coordinates available?

Our branch is out on an Indian reservation with limited addressing. Our branch mission leader has been finding members homes and then noting the GPS coordinates (lat/long). Is there a way to easily use those coordinates to find the members home in the existing maps.lds.org tool, or will I have to look the coordinates up in a separate tool and then try to correlate that to a location on the map? Would be really nice if I could just type in coordinates for a member and locate them.

bbuyack wrote:Is there a way to easily use those coordinates to find the members home in the existing maps.lds.org tool?

Yes, it can be done. Follow these steps:

1. Go to https://lds.org/maps
2. Choose "My Ward & Stake" from the dropdown in the upper left corner.
3. In the Households list on the left side, click on a household name.
4. In the popup that appears, click the Move link in the lower left corner.
5. In the "Enter an Address" box, enter the lat/lon coordinates, and click the magnifying glass icon (or press Enter)
6. The specified location will be highlighted on the map.
7. Choose the Approximate or Exact location radio button as appropriate.
8. Click "Save Location"
9. Repeat for each household.

Of course, this will only work if you have a calling that allows you to verify locations for your ward members, but it sounds like that is the case for you.

aebrown wrote:

bbuyack wrote:Is there a way to easily use those coordinates to find the members home in the existing maps.lds.org tool?

Yes, it can be done. Follow these steps:

1. Go to https://lds.org/maps
2. Choose "My Ward & Stake" from the dropdown in the upper left corner.
3. In the Households list on the left side, click on a household name.
4. In the popup that appears, click the Move link in the lower left corner.
5. In the "Enter an Address" box, enter the lat/lon coordinates, and click the magnifying glass icon (or press Enter)
6. The specified location will be highlighted on the map.
7. Choose the Approximate or Exact location radio button as appropriate.
8. Click "Save Location"
9. Repeat for each household.

Of course, this will only work if you have a calling that allows you to verify locations for your ward members, but it sounds like that is the case for you.

Thanks! I did not know that.

Does that method preserve any existing street address in the maps record for that family? If so, that would be a good way for clerks in other units (with ordinary street addresses) to manually enter geocoded coordinates from some other reliable source and "verify" that location.

I can't test this myself because my current calling lacks the privilege to verify map locations.

RossEvans wrote:Does that method preserve any existing street address in the maps record for that family?

Entering the lat/long coordinates manually as described is just another way of moving the household location. It does not affect the address for the household in Maps or the CMIS database.