Spouse still in directory after name removal

A woman in my ward went through the process to have her name removed from Church records. The process is now complete but her name still show's up in our ward list because her spouse is still a member. She would prefer that her name not appear anywhere in anything associated with the Church. How can I make that happen?

You will have to call Local Unit Support and have them remove it. If they give you any trouble about it, refer them to this page that talks about having "the record suppressed."

bcapsley1 wrote:A woman in my ward went through the process to have her name removed from Church records. The process is now complete but her name still show's up in our ward list because her spouse is still a member. She would prefer that her name not appear anywhere in anything associated with the Church. How can I make that happen?

All nonmember spouses appear in the Directory on LDS.org by default. I assume that this is what you mean by "our ward list". If so, follow the instructions here to make sure her name no longer appears there.

If you mean something else, please supply some details as to what you mean by "ward list."

I have called Local Unit Support. I also spoke with someone in Confidential Records. Nobody I spoke with was able to help. It's as if they've never been asked the question before. I suggested that the marriage record may need to be "suppressed", but they didn't seem to know what I was talking about. There has got to be a way to keep the name of a non-member spouse from appearing in the ward directory on lds.org. I know a record can be marked "private" so that it's only visible to leadership, but that isn't enough for someone who is antagonistic towards the Church.

bcapsley1 wrote:I have called Local Unit Support. I also spoke with someone in Confidential Records. Nobody I spoke with was able to help. It's as if they've never been asked the question before. I suggested that the marriage record may need to be "suppressed", but they didn't seem to know what I was talking about. There has got to be a way to keep the name of a non-member spouse from appearing in the ward directory on lds.org.

I'm sorry you weren't able to find someone to help you, but it most certainly can be done. There are multiple reports of clerks successfully working with Local Unit Support to do this (see, for example, here or here; a Church employee confirms this procedure here). All I can advise is that you persist, asking to talk with some other support agent until you find someone who can do this.

I questioned a developer. They indicated that this only works for a non-member spouse. Which means the name removal must be finalized. It might be a good idea to have the bishop call in case there's something holding up the process.

If that still doesn't work, let me know.