My Calling as a Ward Temple and Family History Consultant

Who Do I Work With?

Members and People Learning the Gospel

Build sincere relationships with members and friends as you serve. As you do so, you will help them feel loved and feel a desire to come unto Christ. As you gently guide and introduce people to discovering their families’ stories and serving their ancestors in the temple, you help them find simple ways to become involved in the gathering of Israel. These efforts encourage people to seek personal guidance from the Spirit and avoid using criticism or guilt as a motivator. Point out simple ways that they might become involved in the work, and encourage them to seek the guidance of the Spirit.

Protecting Children and Youth training: All leaders and teachers of children or youth need to complete this training within one month of being called. The training is found at ProtectingChildren.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Elders Quorum and Relief Society Presidencies

The elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies lead the day-to-day temple and family history efforts in the ward. See General Handbook, 25.2.2, for more information about their responsibilities associated with this work. You can counsel with them during ward temple and family history coordination meetings.

Ward Temple and Family History Leader

If a ward temple and family history leader is called, he serves under the direction of the elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies in the ward. He is responsible for implementing the ward temple and family history plan by coordinating with the members of the temple and family history coordinating committee, including youth quorum and class representatives. See General Handbook, 25.2.3, for more information about the ward temple and family history leader’s responsibilities.

Stake Leaders

High councilors assigned to temple and family history work, assisted by stake temple and family history consultants, can help train you in the important aspects and skills of your calling. See General Handbook, 25.3.3.

What FamilySearch Skills Do I Need?

Basic skills:

• Setting up a FamilySearch account

• Building a four-generation pedigree

• Using Ordinances Ready (see the video “How to Use the ‘Ordinances Ready’—Video Training for Web” from 2022 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction [ChurchofJesusChrist.org])

• Using the temple reservation lists, including reservation limits, filtering reservations, family groups, sharing names, printing names, and so forth

• Knowing what to do when you find a name with a green or gold temple icon

• Adding memories to people in the tree

• Using Record Hints to create and attach a source or detach a source

• Creating partner accounts and searching on partner sites

• Handling possible duplicate people in the system, including merging and unmerging people

Additional skill:

• Using resources to search on FamilySearch.org, such as the Research Wiki, the FamilySearch Digital Library, the FamilySearch catalog, and so forth