Ancestry is used by many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to complement family history research. To reduce confusion and prevent duplication of ordinance completion, Ancestry has developed tools that enable users to quickly identify individuals in their Ancestry tree who are not connected to the FamilySearch Family Tree.
The new ordinance-related features on Ancestry are available only to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These convenient features are intended to help Ancestry users view current ordinance status. They provide links to FamilySearch for ordinance reservations and for viewing ordinance information. Church members can also view ordinance status in Ancestry to quickly identify ordinance work that needs to be completed.
Steps (website)
- Navigate to Ancestry.com.
- Sign in.
- In the top menu, click Trees.
- If you have more than one tree, select the Ancestry tree you want to compare to the FamilySearch Family Tree.
- In the left side panel, click the Family Tree icon.
- At the top of the page, the name of the Ancestry tree you are reviewing appears. The page also has a search box and option buttons to filter and see temple ordinance status.
- A list of individuals is included, and their ordinance status in the FamilySearch Family Tree appears in the Ordinances column.
- Click Filter.
- To the right, a side panel appears. Click the FamilySearch section.
- Click the checkboxes for the connection type you want to view. Options include “Connected to FamilySearch” and “Not connected to FamilySearch.”
- The Ordinances column statuses change based on your selection.
- For the Connected to FamilySearch option, the Ordinances column displays statuses such as Available, Complete, Unknown, or Needs more information.
- For the Not connected to FamilySearch option, the Ordinances column displays a Connect button.
- By clicking the available Complete, Unknown, or Needs more information buttons in the Ordinances column, signed-in Ancestry users are brought to the individual's FamilySearch person page, where details can be viewed and temple ordinances reserved.
Note: Ordinance information, including the ability to reserve ordinances, is not stored or accessible on Ancestry's servers. Users can access those capabilities only on FamilySearch.
To quickly view an individual's ordinance completion status, do the following:
- Navigate to the person's profile page in Ancestry. You can also access the person's page by clicking the name hyperlink in the list of temple status.
- At the top right, locate and click the Family Tree icon.
- A blue checkmark appears next to the icon if all ordinances are complete.
- An exclamation point appears next to the icon if the ordinances are incomplete or if the status of the ordinances is unknown.