Finding a church member

This seems like a longshot to me, but I thought I would post it here. A former Bishop who is now a counselor in the Mission Presidency has asked me if I know of a way that a new convert can find and contact a missionary who first taught him back in the 1980s. He knows the Elder's name but that is all.

I know that the church protects membership and personal information well, so it seems that a google search or even a private investigator would be better than trying to go through the church, but what do I know.

Thanks for any ideas in advance.

The church does have a system for requesting contact with a member.
I used the system 5 or 6 years ago, and from what I recall there was a form where you fill in as much as you know about the member and include a message for the recipient with your contact information (I believe there was also a nominal fee).
The church will then mail the message to the member and it is up to the recipient to make contact with you.
I had done all this in person at CHQ, but I would imagine it's possible to do it by phone.
I also had good identifying info on the person I was contacting (such as full name, birth date and previous ward). It would be more difficult for CHQ to locate someone with limited info, but if the date and name of the mission is known, possibly they can look up that info from the missionary dept.
Good luck.

Unfortunately this program was discontinued several years ago. The Church is no longer able to assist in these requests in any way.

ParkMeadowsClerk wrote:A former Bishop who is now a counselor in the Mission Presidency has asked me if I know of a way that a new convert can find and contact a missionary who first taught him back in the 1980s. He knows the Elder's name but that is all.

I think there are some website(s) for mission alumni. You might suggest the convert look for some and see if s/he can find their missionary that way.

13thfloorrocks wrote:Unfortunately this program was discontinued several years ago. The Church is no longer able to assist in these requests in any way.

I find this rather unfortunate, as this was the only way I was able to get my PH line of authority. In my research, I was able to find who ordained my father and then who ordained him - but that was the dead end, because apparently the next one up was a visiting authority who was relatively unknown (and his name was spelled wrong in the ward records).

On the good chance that the one I had info on also ordained his sons, I was able to use the church's assistance to contact them and get their lines of authority (and thus complete mine).

What's the suggestion nowadays if a similar case exists?

In regards to ones priesthood line of authority, just how does one go about getting it? Last night I had our Stake Executive Secretary ask me that very question. If we are unable to locate a member who ordained us although we have their name, how do we go about getting in contact with them or is there some function at CHQ that helps individuals research their line?

For example, I know the names of the individuals who ordained me an Elder and a High Priest but I have no idea how to go about finding out who ordained them without contacting them. In the case of the Elder ordination the individual is deceased. The individual who ordained me a High Priest is probably still alive but I have no idea where he resides as we were both living in Texas at the time and have both moved to different locations during our careers.

Pilotfly wrote:In regards to ones priesthood line of authority, just how does one go about getting it?

See the wiki article Priesthood Line of Authority for details on how to get a copy of your line of authority as it exists in Church records.

Those records are not entirely complete, so there's a chance you may not get all the information you want. But that's certainly the best place to start so that you'll know what is currently recorded, and then you can begin your research from that point.

Alan, I actually tried looking up the info in the wiki section before putting my question here. Unfortunately I was looking under "Priesthood Line of Authority" in the search box. I didn't get back any search responses other than for "of". I assumed therefore it wasn't one of the subjects. At your direction I went back to the wiki but there is nothing under Priesthood Line of Authority either - the information is listed under "Line of Authority".

Perhaps my search skills need upgrading but I thought I would post the place that I found the information in case any others are looking. Anyway, the wiki article gives good info on how to get started.

Thanks
Jim

Pilotfly wrote:Alan, I actually tried looking up the info in the wiki section before putting my question here. Unfortunately I was looking under "Priesthood Line of Authority" in the search box. I didn't get back any search responses other than for "of". I assumed therefore it wasn't one of the subjects. At your direction I went back to the wiki but there is nothing under Priesthood Line of Authority either - the information is listed under "Line of Authority".

I can't imagine how you wouldn't have found it under "Priesthood Line of Authority", since that is the exact title, and it would have to match (and does, in my testing). If you typed it in lower case, then it might not have matched -- so I added a redirect using lowercase. The built-in search for MediaWiki is rather weak, so one helpful hint is to use Google. If you search for "site:tech.lds.org/wiki line of authority" you'll find it right away.

Pilotfly wrote:For example, I know the names of the individuals who ordained me an Elder and a High Priest but I have no idea how to go about finding out who ordained them without contacting them. In the case of the Elder ordination the individual is deceased. The individual who ordained me a High Priest is probably still alive but I have no idea where he resides as we were both living in Texas at the time and have both moved to different locations during our careers.

It's probably in the wiki, but really you only need the line from your HP ordination (the latest), unless you want to give your line from your Elder ordination to someone you ordained when you were an elder.