The lesson to be learned:
Search the Ordinance Index,
BEFORE using TempleReady
It is wonderful that we have TempleReady to help in the submission of names to the temple. It is sometimes said "better twice than not at all." That is true, but think of all the work that needs to be done, that isn't being done, because we are too busy redoing work that has already been done, sometimes many times.
I am a Family History Center Director, teacher of the ward Sunday School Family History class, and an Assistant Sealing Supervisor at the Oakland Temple. Some time ago I became aware of patron-submitted names from early Plymouth County, Massachusetts. That area has been searched quite thoroughly. I checked the Ordinance Index and found the work had been done for most of the names, some many times. I began checking lists of patron-submitted Temple File names. Out of one group of ten, nine had been done; in another group of ten, seven had been done. Checking a group of 24 marriages submitted by a former temple president, that had been cleared with TempleReady by a Family History Center worker, I found 17 had been done.
Being cursed with an insatiable curiosity, I wanted to know why. I found nothing in Family History manuals, nor in FamilySearch material to warn of the pitfalls. Problems start with patrons trusting TempleReady to do all the work. It is a good program but it has limitations. It cannot take the place of human judgment. The problems are compounded by selecting: 1) Submit records that have only a name 2) Let the computer approximate it, and 3) Let the computer decide which records match.
If your submission has complete dates, places, and parents, and you select Show matching records and let me decide, TempleReady does pretty well. It presents some possible matches. See Case 1 below. However, be aware that TempleReady searches ONLY plus and minus ONE YEAR. If your date is off by two years you may do the temple ordinances needlessly. However, if you look in the Ordinance Index first you can scan as many years as necessary to find a match.
I see literally thousands of names submitted with just the state and the year. In most cases this means somebody knew the state but guessed the date. If the person who already did the temple work also guessed the date, what is the chance of your guessing the same year? If you have only a will and you estimate the birth dates of children from the heirs named, how do you know there were no children who died which would throw off your calculations?
If you select Let the computer decide which records match things become less predictable. If you submit no parent, even if the year and state are correct, TempleReady CANNOT find a match. It ALWAYS clears the name. I tested TempleReady with 76 names without parents which I had downloaded from the Ordinance Index. I just deleted the day, month, town, county. and ordinance dates. Every name was cleared. See Case 7 below.
Probably the most distressing result is finding a situation where TempleReady should clear a name for temple work but does not. See Case 8 below.
Searching for Individuals with Show matching records and let me decide.
1. The ideal case is a submission with complete dates, places, and parents. However, complete information is not always necessary. In many cases the year and the state are enough. Dates seem to take precedence over parents. If necessary, TempleReady searches plus or minus one year and may present conflicting parents. See the following matches.
Example:
Submitted: SMITH, John, Birth: 1699, Massachusetts
Father: none, Mother: Mary CLARK
First match of six:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 01 May 1699, Hadley, , Massachusetts;
Father: none, Mother: none
Fourth match of six:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 30 Nov 1700, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts;
Father: John SMITH, Mother: Mary CLARK
Sixth match of six:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 01 May 1699, Of, , , Massachusetts;
Father: Ebenezer SMITH, Mother: Abigail BOUTON
2. Without a parent, the town, county and state are all required for TempleReady to search plus or minus one year to find a match.
Example:
Submitted: SMITH, John, Birth: 1715, Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island;
Father: none, Mother: none
First match of two:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 20 Jan 1714, Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island;
Father: Daniel SMITH, Mother: Elizabeth
With either the town or the county missing, TempleReady
presented no matches.
3. Without a parent and only the state, the year must be correct for TempleReady to find a match. It does NOT search plus or minus one year. Matches are first without, then with parent names.
Example:
Submitted: SMITH, John, Birth: 1700, Massachusetts;
Father: none, Mother: none
First match of eight:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 1700, , Charlestown, Massachusetts;
Father: none, Mother: none
Third match of eight:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 20 Aug 1700, , Charlestown, Massachusetts;
Father: Henry SMITH, Mother: Sarah
Fourth match of eight:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 30 Nov 1700, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts;
Father: John SMITH, Mother: Mary CLARK
With neither the town nor county, TempleReady presented no
matches.
Searching for Individuals with Let the computer decide which records match.
4. With a parent, TempleReady requires either the town or county, in addition to the state, to search plus or minus one year to find a match. The parent can be the father, the mother, or both.
Example:
Submitted: AFFLECK, George Marlar, Birth: 1900, Providence, Cache, Utah;
Father: none, Mother: Sara MARLAR
TempleReady did NOT clear the name because of the following match:
- AFFLECK, George Marlar, Birth: 2 Oct 1899, Providence, Cache, Utah;
Father: David AFFLECK, Mother: Sarah MARLAR
When only "Utah" was submitted, TempleReady DID clear the
name.
5. Without a parent and with the correct year, TempleReady requires either the town or county, in addition to the state, to find a match.
Example:
Submitted: SMITH, John, Birth: 1800, Stamford, , Connecticut;
Father: none, Mother: Nancy LINTWORTH
TempleReady did NOT clear the name because of the following
match:
- SMITH, John, Birth: 16 Aug 1800, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut;
Father: Peter SMITH, Mother: Nancy LINTWORTH
When only "Connecticut" was submitted, TempleReady DID clear
the name.
6. Without a parent and with only the state, TempleReady requires the correct month and year to find a match.
Example:
Submitted: SMITH, Daisy Elva, Birth: Feb 1874, Illinois;
Father: none, Mother: None
TempleReady did NOT clear the name because of the following
match:
- SMITH, Daisy Elva, Birth: 6 Feb 1874, Of, Ipava, Fulton, Illinois;
Father: James Elwood SMITH, Mother: Esther MAXWELL
When only "1874" was submitted, TempleReady DID clear the
name.
7. Without a parent and with only the state and year, TempleReady ALWAYS clears the name.
Example:
Submitted: AFFLECK, George Marlar, Birth: 1899, Utah;
Father: none, Mother: none
TempleReady cleared the name in spite of the following
available match:
- AFFLECK, George Marlar, Birth: 2 Oct 1899, Providence, Cache, Utah;
Father: David AFFLECK, Mother: Sara MARLAR
Names That Should Have Been Cleared But Weren't Because of Selecting Let the computer decide which records match.
A different problem may arise if there were two or more children with the same name born in the same year in the same town, of course with different parents. An example is the two John BROWNs who were born in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts in 1727. If a third John BROWN is submitted with only the year, TempleReady may say it is the same person as one of the other John BROWNs and not clear the name even though the parents are different.
8. This can happen if the name(s) in the Ordinance Index have complete dates and the submission has only the year.
Example:
Submitted: BROWN, John, Christening: 1727, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts;
Father: William BROWN, Mother: Sarah
TempleReady did NOT clear the name because it matched the
name incorrectly with the first of the following
two John BROWNS who had different parents:
- BROWN, John, Christening: 11 Jun 1727, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts;
Father: John BROWN, Mother: Lydia
- BROWN, John, Christening: 14 Jan 1727, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts;
Father: Peter BROWN, Mother: Rebecca
When a birth month was submitted, which was different from the other John BROWNs, TempleReady DID clear the name. Strangely, the names of the parents were ignored. It needed a more complete submitted date in order to recognize the difference and clear the name.
Searching for Marriages with Show matching records and let me decide.
9. TempleReady needs the state and town or county in order to search plus or minus one year. It then presents possible matches.
Example:
Submitted: ADAMS, William, Spouse: Susanna BROWN;
Marriage: 1773, Gorham, , Maine
TempleReady presented the following match:
- ADAMS, William, Spouse: Susanna BROWN;
Marriage: 03 Dec 1772, Gorham, Cumberland, Maine
Searching for Marriages with Let the computer decide which records match.
10. TempleReady must have the correct year but needs only the state.
Example:
Submitted: ADAMS, William, Spouse: Susanna BROWN; Marriage: 1772, Maine
TempleReady did NOT clear the name because of the same match
as above.
Searching for Place Names
In the following cases TempleReady would clear a name for which the work had already been done. It cannot match ,, state, USA with ,,, USA; ,,, USA with ,, state, USA. It can only match ,,, USA with ,,, USA which is rare in the Ordinance Index. It cannot match town, county,, England with town, county, England.
TempleReady Approximations
TempleReady seems to make the same approximations as PAF 3.01M and it checks for possible errors in submitted dates. It does not appear to check for some errors in the approximations it makes.
If there is no date or place for a spouse, TempleReady approximates the missing date to make the husband four years older than the wife and born at the same place. That is the most common age difference but it may be off by many years, especially for a remarriage.
If there are no dates or places for the children or for the marriage, TempleReady makes the marriage 21 years after the birth of the wife and at the same place. The birth of the first child is then made one year after the marriage and at the same place. Subsequent children are then placed two years apart at the same place. This is a reasonable pattern but it actually fits few families. If the information is entered manually into TempleReady the age of the husband is ignored even if the results are impossible (i.e. born after his children).
If there is no date or place for the marriage, it is placed one year before the birth of the first child and at the same place. If the child is entered manually before the parents, the birth dates of the parents are ignored even if the results are impossible as above. This not the case if the parents are entered first.
Searching for Variant Spellings of Surnames
It is often difficult to think of all the possible variant spellings of some names. However, TempleReady searches only one group of spellings and accepts any spelling in that group. If the variant is in a different spelling group TempleReady cannot find it and the temple work may be repeated. This is complicated by the far greater number of spelling groups in North America compared to the British Isles. This is a problem few are aware of.
In North America: Smythe is not with Smith; Harrington is not with Herrington; Pabody is not with Peabody; Sanders is not with Saunders; Coburn is not with Colburn; Braun is not with Brown. In the British Isles each pair is in the same spelling group.
In the British Isles there are 64 spellings of my surname, all in one group under the heading of Cummings. Many I had never seen before. TempleReady accepts any of the spellings as possible matches. In North America there are 59 different spellings but in ten different spelling groups under the headings of Comins, Commons, Comings, Commings, Cowman, Cumins, Cumine, Cumings, Cummings (with only Cumming), and Cummins, all of which are under Cummings in the British Isles CDs.
Most books have standardized on the most common spelling, Cummings, which first appeared about two hundred and fifty years ago. Thus, almost all names submitted with early spellings will not match Cummings ordinances and the work will be repeated.
The lesson to be learned:
Search the Ordinance Index,
BEFORE using TempleReady
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