Sending Lost Sheep to Salt Lake

So I've exhausted pretty much everything on my Lost Sheep list. I have a handful that I just seem unable to find. I hate to send them to Salt Lake but I guess I have to. Although, it's not obvious to me how to do that. What are the steps for sending a record to Salt Lake?

I believe you do a move out, but there's a check box for not knowing the address.

russellhltn wrote:I believe you do a move out, but there's a check box for not knowing the address.

Correct. When you try to move a member out of the unit, there is a checkbox to indicate if you know the new address. If you don't have a new address, you get the popup to check off the list of things the ward council is supposed to attempt before sending them to the "address unknown" file. You will also have to enter the date the bishop/branch president granted approval to send to the "address unknown" file.

And, yes, I said "ward council" on purpose. The list of things to do when a member has moved without leaving a forwarding address is the responsibility of the ward council. The clerk is a member of the ward council, but is not necessarily responsible to do everything by himself. I have found our full time missionaries to be a great help and it gives them an excuse to speak with the neighbors.

Part of the reason to involve the ward council is they'll know who that person was friends with and who might still be in contact with them.

davesudweeks wrote:And, yes, I said "ward council" on purpose. The list of things to do when a member has moved without leaving a forwarding address is the responsibility of the ward council. The clerk is a member of the ward council, but is not necessarily responsible to do everything by himself. I have found our full time missionaries to be a great help and it gives them an excuse to speak with the neighbors.

Oh, absolutely. Our ward council did their job and fulfilled their responsibilities for trying to find people. What I've found is that as ward clerk, I've been able to find people a lot better as I have access to more information. So they did their job a while back but I've been doing everything I can to try to find people before sending them to the ether of Salt Lake. Some were pretty difficult, but I managed to move them one way or another. I have a handful that are just absolutely not giving me any clues.

I've been ward clerk just over a year. We've had records sitting in our ward for anywhere from 1 to 8 years.

Mottzzz wrote:I've been ward clerk just over a year. We've had records sitting in our ward for anywhere from 1 to 8 years.

Another possible option is to look at the parents of the member. If your lost sheep has member parents, their ward/branch will be indicated on their membership record. We have had some success contacting the bishop of the parent's ward and asking him to let the parents know we have their child's membership record and are trying to find out where they live because they have moved. You can get the bishop's contact information using CDOL.

davesudweeks wrote:Another possible option is to look at the parents of the member. If your lost sheep has member parents, their ward/branch will be indicated on their membership record.

While that can be done, I'm sure the church will do exactly the same thing should the record be sent in.

russellhltn wrote:While that can be done, I'm sure the church will do exactly the same thing should the record be sent in.

Perhaps, but it might get the record in the right place sooner than languishing in "address unknown" for an unknown length of time. We don't do it with everyone, but try to follow the spirit in those decisions.

Oh, totally. I figured out the parent thing a while ago and I've used it a few times. Sometimes I use it to try to contact the parent, but sometimes it just helps me gather information and clues. And right, I recently became aware that Salt Lake sends out messages to family trying to find them. But it's just faster and easier if I can do it instead of waiting for Salt Lake.