How is Household different from Family?

I just wrote a long message here, had to leave for a few minutes and returned to complete it and had to log back in, losing my first message.

My question is what is the difference between household and family in the Member Information screen?

The definition of family says it includes the person, the spouse (if still married), parents, and children.

I only see a person and the spouse listed there, no children, and no parents. Older children still living at home show up in their "own" household. If the children have a different surname, it is difficult to tie them to their parents.

I left feedback on the Member Information page suggesting that this be clarified and that a way be provided to tie families together on LDS.org. I left my email address for a reply, but so far nothing.

The family tab should show all family members (parents, spouse and children) whether they are in the ward or in the same household or not (or even whether they are members or still alive). If that information doesn't show up on the family tab then that information has not been entered for that member. You can add parents on that tab directly in LCR (there should be a link label something like Add Parent or Add Mother or Add Father). As soon as LCR 4.0 is released (which should be any day now), you'll also be able to enter children as well. Until LCR 4.0 is released, you have to add children in MLS on the Children tab of the member's record.

A household is only those members who live at the same location. They usually are related but don't have to be. Sometimes members living at the same location may be put in separate households as directed by the bishop (married adult children living with parents or even just adult children living with parents who are assigned different home/visiting teachers for instance). More information can be found on this help center page. Generally younger children who live with their parents should be in their parent's household even if they have a different surname. If that isn't the case you should be able to add them on the Household tab in LCR.

This is assuming you have membership edit rights (i.e. bishop, clerk or membership clerk). Otherwise, you won't have the edit option and will need to talk to someone with edit rights.

Thanks for your reply! I'm a stake executive secretary so I can't edit membership records. None of our membership records show anything other and husband and wife under the Family menu. Does the ward clerk have to manually enter the rest of the family? I'd think that LDS.org (LCR) could put the families together. Many of our older children still living at home show up in separate households on LDS.org. Is that something that is decided by the Bishop/Ward Clerk?

Looks like LCR 4.0 is being released today, but I'm still seeing 3.4.6. So I don't have 4.0 running. Maybe it will have this updated. Do you know how they roll out new releases? I'll keep checking to see when my LCR is at 4.0 and see if it is different.

Appreciate your comments and suggestions.

veehb wrote:I'm a stake executive secretary .... None of our membership records show anything other and husband and wife under the Family menu.

Your calling only allows you to see the husband and wife. It might be helpful for you to sit down with the stake clerk and compare what you see with what he sees.

veehb wrote:Many of our older children still living at home show up in separate households on LDS.org. Is that something that is decided by the Bishop/Ward Clerk?

That is something that should ultimately be decided by the bishop.

veehb wrote:Looks like LCR 4.0 is being released today, but I'm still seeing 3.4.6.

When the LCR 4.0 release notes were originally posted, today was listed as the projected release date. There are still some final beta issues being resolved and the translation process is moving forward, so the final release will not be for a few more weeks.

veehb wrote:I left feedback on the Member Information page suggesting that this be clarified and that a way be provided to tie families together on LDS.org. I left my email address for a reply, but so far nothing.

The family relationships exist -- you just don't have rights to see them.

You may not get a reply to your feedback. The volume makes it difficult to reply to every message.

Thank you. So maybe the family relationships are shown, but only to Bishops and clerks?

I'll get with the stake clerk on Sunday and see what he sees. Maybe 4.0 release will address some of this.

Appreciate your answers.

Yes, the family relationships are only shown to bishops and clerks.

No, LCR 4.0 does not have any expansion to this functionality that would allow you to see the family relationships.

scgallafent wrote:Yes, the family relationships are only shown to bishops and clerks.

That's good to know. I hadn't thought of that but it makes sense.

scgallafent wrote:When the LCR 4.0 release notes were originally posted, today was listed as the projected release date. There are still some final beta issues being resolved and the translation process is moving forward, so the final release will not be for a few more weeks.

That's also good to know, too. When mentioning that a release is due soon according to the release notes I always qualify that things sometimes come up. But we can help manage expectations if we know the release is significantly delayed.