Record comments section

At one time, records had a comments section. I've been adding some sources to family history records and enjoy reading the comments pertaining to an individual. For example..
"Hearing of the restored gospel, he came to Kirtland, Ohio, to investigate. The Prophet Joseph Smith, during an interview, gave him a Book of Mormon. He asked how he could find out if it were true and was answered, "Read it, and if you are not satisfied with it, read it again." The reading resulted in his conversion to "Mormonism."

I'm curious if there is some reason this was discontinued.

Moderator note: The thread has been moved from the "Membership Help" forum in the "Clerk Support" group of forums to the "Family Search Family Tree Application" since it appears the OP is addressing family history records rather than membership records.

I guess this works but I am asking why the comments section is no longer on the membership record.

I don't think there have been comments allowed for a very long time, certainly not during the time I've been a clerk. I was not aware that they ever were supported.

However, in today's environment freeform comments would at very least be a PR problem. The idea the church keeps a database of personal information on all it's members would not go over well with many people. There are some members who don't really like that the church has their birthdate much less freeform personal information. It's quite possible that such information might also run afoul of privacy laws in some countries.

Family search is a bit different in that comments can only be seen publicly for the deceased and any other notes entered are within personal sandboxes that can only be accessed by the person who entered them.

wrigjef wrote:At one time, records had a comments section. I've been adding some sources to family history records and enjoy reading the comments pertaining to an individual. For example..
"Hearing of the restored gospel, he came to Kirtland, Ohio, to investigate. The Prophet Joseph Smith, during an interview, gave him a Book of Mormon. He asked how he could find out if it were true and was answered, "Read it, and if you are not satisfied with it, read it again." The reading resulted in his conversion to "Mormonism."

I'm curious if there is some reason this was discontinued.

Where are you seeing these comments? What leads you to conclude that they came from a membership record? Can you supply a Person ID for a person in the FamilySearch Family Tree that has such a comments section?

Ancestry.com through my church account.

wrigjef wrote:Ancestry.com through my church account.

This data does not come from actual membership records. Rather, this is a collection of records compiled by Susan Easton Black titled Membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1848. It is an annotated history of many of the early members of the Church.

I see no evidence that these comments were actually on membership records; it just happens that the record collection has a title that could easily lead you to believe that the data was found on membership records.

OK thanks, I'm surprised that someone would do the research and post such detailed ordinance information.

wrigjef wrote:OK thanks, I'm surprised that someone would do the research and post such detailed ordinance information.

The first 18 years of the church? I'm not surprised. In fact, it might have been done just to create some background for other historical writings.