Endowment date verification

A member in our ward was showing an endowment date 2 months prior to his ordination date. I had him bring his ordination certificate to verify the ordination date was correct, which it wasn't--off by a few weeks. I got that corrected but the endowment date still shows a couple months before the ordination date. The member doesn't remember the exact day he received his endowment other than it was two or three days after the ordination.

Is there any way to check temple records to verify the day a member was endowed? The endowment occured in the Atlanta temple in 1994.

cjbeckert wrote:A member in our ward was showing an endowment date 2 months prior to his ordination date. I had him bring his ordination certificate to verify the ordination date was correct, which it wasn't--off by a few weeks. I got that corrected but the endowment date still shows a couple months before the ordination date. The member doesn't remember the exact day he received his endowment other than it was two or three days after the ordination.

Is there any way to check temple records to verify the day a member was endowed? The endowment occured in the Atlanta temple in 1994.

This seems like a tough issue to solve, especially where you won't be able to correct a temple oridinance date on your own. To me, this sounds like a good candidate for doing a Special Request to Church Headquarters via the MLS software:

https://tech.lds.org/wiki/index.php/Special_request

Either that or call Membership Support via phone. Good luck.

MLS allows the endowment date to be edited. I just need a temple record to confirm when the ordinance occured.

cjbeckert wrote:MLS allows the endowment date to be edited. I just need a temple record to confirm when the ordinance occured.

Although MLS allows the date to be edited; I assure you that it will be verified by the Temple Department, so it does have to match the actual event. Of course, that raises the question of how to verify it in the first place; I don't know, other than to contact Local Unit Support or the Temple Department.

In either case, they would have to verify that you are either the person whose membership record needs to be corrected, or an authorized priesthood leader or clerk (which you could do by sending an MLS message).

cjbeckert wrote:Is there any way to check temple records to verify the day a member was endowed? The endowment occured in the Atlanta temple in 1994.

I'm with mkmurray on this one. You might want to send in a special request through MLS to CHQ and ask them to verify the endowment date. Explain why you are asking.

If you are near a temple, the member could also go into the temple and ask for his endowment date, and they should be able to provide it. A short visit with the temple recorder should do it.

Although it is possible that the temple information was incorrectly recorded, I would be suspicious of the date on the ordination certificate first. It may have been prepared after the fact and have an erroneous date on it.

Thanks all. I'll try sending a special request message via MLS but also ask the member to stop by our local temple and talk with the recorder. Maybe one of those methods will yield results.

The member affirmed that the ordination date is correct on the certificate and he remembers the day he left for the MTC afterwards. He just can't remember the exact date he recieved his endowment inbetween so I'm inclined to believe the certificate date. He also mentioned that everything seemed rushed during that time frame: ordination, followed by endowment a couple days later, then leave for MTC a few days after that.

I had a situation where the member's endowment was completely missing and I wasn't aware that I could update the endowment. I called the temple where the endowment took place. They did not have a record of the actual ordinance, which makes sense since it was not recorded, but they did have a record of the member's appointment, which I used and the temple department did verify it. Of course, this member was endowed in 2007. I don't know if the temple would have records that far back or not.

I sent a special request via MLS over a month ago with no response. The member said he would contact the temple for info. If that doesn't work, I guess his record will stay as is with an endowment date prior to MP ordination date. Thanks for the suggestions.

You can also have the bishop contact the Special Services desk in the Temple Department, they can research the issue and get back to him.