We were working in the Baptistry last night and and we had a lot of family file names. Many of the cards had x's in all the ordinance boxes except for baptism and confirmation. Another lady brought one in with dates in all the boxes except for baptism and confirmation. She was questioning her card. I suggested to her that there might be a duplicate and to check and combine any duplicates. She took the card to family file and came back and said to do the baptism. Have others had cards with all the other work done but not baptism and confirmation? I thought that was really strange for so many cards to have no baptism and confirmation but have endowment and sealing's already completed. Kathy Portland, Oregon

Kathy wrote: We were working in the Baptistry last night and and we had a lot of family file names. Many of the cards had x's in all the ordinance boxes except for baptism and confirmation. My response: This is the way the cards print out when nFS clears the names for baptism and confirmation only. It does not mean those ordinances have been completed (as those x's would have meant in the past), but it means that they were not cleared on that submission. After the baptisms and confirmations are recorded, this process then allows the submitter to go back and send the same names to the temple file for the next ordinances. When I brought a batch of baptisms to the temple this week, I had to explain this to the temple workers. Since Provo is not yet on the new system, they had not seen this before. Kathy: Another lady brought one in with dates in all the boxes except for baptism and confirmation. She was questioning her card. I suggested to her that there might be a duplicate and to check and combine any duplicates. She took the card to family file and came back and said to do the baptism. My response: Yes, I think this one was strange as well, but I can share a somewhat similar experience. In the earlier years of the Church, it was possible for baptism and confirmation to occur without it being recorded. Everyone "knew" the person was a member of the Church, and they went on and performed their remaining ordinances. As we look at the records now, we have blanks for the baptism and confirmation. I had a great uncle in this situation, and after extensive research in the ward records throughout his life, we had to conclude that his baptism was never recorded. The temple president told us to perform that baptism, since recording is considered part of the ordinance. In that case, we have a baptism after all of the ordinances (which has nothing to do with excommunication), but I have a note in his record stating why. Maybe your situation was similar? Jill Crandell