Ordinance dates out of order?

Alanna Broome

Hi,

I was going through cards that were printed before the temple closed due to COVID, checking if any had expired or been merged or otherwise changed during the break. One of my family names has been merged and the dates for ordinances are as follows:

Baptism and Confirmation 12 May 1979 St George Utah Temple (completed before the merge; I did them again without realising, but my dates have disappeared with the merge, as expected)

Initiatory 9 February 2021 at my local temple (completed by me)

Endowment 30 June 1979 St George Utah Temple (back to completion before the merge)

I'm a bit confused as to this initiatory date. Should the endowment be done again? I don't think it needs to be since it's recorded as done, but my sister thinks it does need to be done again because of the record discrepancy. Thoughts?

lyleblunttoronto1

Here is a great help article. (You may need to login to see it)

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/correct-order-of-temple-ordinances

In general familySearch enforces the ordinance order for BCIE. But if things are accidentally done out of order for a deceased person or dates get messy because of a merge, its okay as long as the others get done. Living people must do their own ordinances in order.

There are more links to other related questions at the bottom of the article, that you may be interested in reading.

Amy Archibald

@Alanna Broome

One of the older ways of recording ordinances was to list the initiatory ordinance as "completed" when the ordinance was verified to be done prior to the endowment being completed. When you merge duplicate records, any newer recording of that ordinance will replace the word "completed". This is why you are seeing the older 1979 dates and then the more recent date of the duplicate.

Sign into FamilySearch to view this article for more information about how these ordinances were recorded in the past: https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/family-tree-considers-an-ordinances-to-be-completed-but-it-does-not-list-a-date-or-temple