A consultant at the Granite FamilySearch Center recently introduced me to “Family Groups,” a tool on FamilySearch Family Tree for sharing temple ordinances with others. I have found it to be very helpful for sharing names with family members and ward members. It has also been helpful for me to keep track of cards I’ve sent to people.

After discovering the “Family Groups” feature, I immediately created a group for my family called “Newman Family.” Now that my kids are older, I find it hard to get the baptismal work for my ancestors done. My sister has younger kids who attend the temple frequently, so using the “Newman Family” group has allowed her to reserve my names and complete the baptisms and confirmations.

A few members in my ward are in a similar situation and would like the baptismal work for their ancestors to be done. I created the “Little Cottonwood Ward” group to facilitate this, which has been a success. Recently, when the youth in our ward had a temple trip, one of the leaders went to the group on FamilySearch and printed out the temple cards of names that various ward members had submitted to the group. The youth performed all the baptisms and confirmations for the ward members that evening.

Also, my ward has a group that does temple sealings weekly, so members have used the “Little Cottonwood Ward” group to share sealing ordinances for them to complete.

The “Family Groups” feature has not only helped me to share ordinance work, but also has served as a way for me to keep track of cards that I have physically sent to others. My aunt, Bonnie, for instance, prefers that I send her temple cards in the mail. I created a family group called “Bonnie” and then found the names I sent her via mail in my temple reservations list and moved them to the “Bonnie” group. This has helped me to not only keep track of which cards I’ve sent to her, but also to keep track of the work she has done for these ancestors. I know she has completed all the work for an ancestor when that ancestor is no longer in the “Bonnie” group and has been moved to the “Completed Ordinances” page on Family Tree.

“Family Groups” has been very helpful for me to get the temple work done for my ancestors. I highly recommend trying it out and using it to share ordinances with family members or others. 

For instructions on how to create a “Family Group” and begin using it, you can read this FamilySearch blog article: https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/shared-family-groups-feature.

I hope you find this tool to be useful!

– Christy Pugh, Communications, Granite FamilySearch Center