Temple Submissions: REQUIREMENTS!

The amount of information required to submit an ordinance to the temple is very little actually.

They are:

• A name. Not even a full name.  A first initial with a last name is really all that's required. 
• Approximate date and location of one life event (preferably birth)
• Gender

That's it!

 Input that into Family Tree and you're good to go!

If you get to family photos like this...stop going.  You're in the 1500's.

It is not required but it is helpful if you have a source for your info and can document how you know the information - memory of someone, family bible, census, birth certificate, grave stone, history compendium etc.)

Now obviously the more info and life events you have the better because you can be sure you're working with the right person and not submitting invalid work.

It helps when you have a death date as well because then you know if you need to look for a marriage possibly, or if you even need to do a baptism.  If they died before age 8 this isn't necessary and Family Tree won't let you do it.  But if you don't have the info of a death, then you can submit it, but you could be submitting an unneeded ordinance.  However, given the nature of genealogical research, obtaining a death date isn't always possible so it isn't required.

Except for a few well documented lines of royalty – most genealogy sources, documentation and resources are  considered unreliable or in-valid before 1500. Generally you will run into issues with Family Tree trying to enter new data from before 1500 for this reason as it won't let you do it without requesting special permission.

Once you've submitted your work to Family Tree you have two options: 1) do the ordinances yourself or 2) release them for others to do.

The general authorities have asked us to have ordinances performed in "a reasonable amount of time" - in other words if you can't do them in "a reasonable amount of time" release them for others to do. 

It is not advised to hold onto a multitude of ordinances that you will not be able to perform yourself because this work needs to be done and the amount of work that needs to be done is immense.  The more work that is done allows other work to be done through the veil and into our lives and extends blessings around the world.   My personal recommendation is to hold onto those that are closest to you and allow others to be blessed by your work around the world as you submit it.  I may hold onto a few names for my trips to the temple but generally as soon as I submit them I release them to the temple to free more people up through the veil to help with the work.