changing head of household

I have a situation in the ward where an previously excommunicated member was re-baptized and a new record was created for his membership.
However, even though the membership lists him and his wife as married to each other they are separate households; he has an entry under her name and she under hers. Right now she is listed as the head of the household.
Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but I need to make him the head and combine his household with hers.
Thanks.

Go to his record, click on the Household tab, and click the Add Household Members button.

When I tried that it said they are already assigned to the household. Both he and his wife are together with their kids in the same household. I just need to make him the head of the household instead of her.

jbailey911 wrote:When I tried that it said they are already assigned to the household. Both he and his wife are together with their kids in the same household. I just need to make him the head of the household instead of her.

Remove the wife from the household (which should automatically make him the head of household) and then add her back in.

Thanks. That worked.

Is there a reason why I would want to make a husband the head of household instead of the wife?

In my ward I have a family, where the wife has been a member for a long time and the husband was recently baptized. Since the wife was HoH before the baptism, she still is. They have different last names and I figured that since most of the members are more used to her name, that is where anyone will automatically look for that family in the ward list. So, I decided not to do anything in order to change the HoH. But is there some good argument why I should make the husband to be the head of household?

Review Handbook 2, 1.3.2: "Fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families." Since the Father's role is to preside, I would suggest making him the head of the household. I would also suggest checking with the bishop/branch president to see if he has any inspiration on how best to proceed.

nikk3hi3tala wrote:since most of the members are more used to her name, that is where anyone will automatically look for that family in the ward list.

That's determined by the "Household name" field. Not by anyone's last name.

russellhltn wrote:

nikk3hi3tala wrote:since most of the members are more used to her name, that is where anyone will automatically look for that family in the ward list.

That's determined by the "Household name" field. Not by anyone's last name.

Good point. So I guess I could make the husband the Head of Household, but have the Household name to be wife's last name. I guess the default for the Household name is the last name of the Head of Household, I hadn't even realized that one can change it (never had the need to change it).

nikk3hi3tala wrote:So I guess I could make the husband the Head of Household, but have the Household name to be wife's last name.

Or hyphenate it. Whatever makes them happy.

mevans wrote:Review Handbook 2, 1.3.2: "Fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families." Since the Father's role is to preside, I would suggest making him the head of the household. I would also suggest checking with the bishop/branch president to see if he has any inspiration on how best to proceed.

There's a clerk support page that explains more about households and heads of households:

For Church record-keeping purposes, a household is a grouping of membership records for individual Church members living at the same address [...]

The head of household is the person to whom all other household membership records are tied. Usually, the member husband or father is the head of household. In certain cases the head of household may also be another member parent, a single adult member, or a member child whose parents are not members. [...]

[H]ousehold decisions should be made by the bishop in consultation with the family members involved.