Table of Contents
110-year Rule Lesson
Temple Work Policy
The First Presidency has a long-standing policy requiring permission from a close living relative before performing temple work. This policy aims to prevent offending relatives who may not want the work done and to allow those who knew and were close to the deceased to perform the ordinances.
110-year Rule
For individuals born within the last 110 years, if you are not a spouse, child, parent, or sibling of the deceased, you must obtain permission from a close living relative before performing ordinances. Close living relatives include:
- An undivorced spouse
- A child 12 years or older
- A parent
- A brother or sister
A grandchild can reserve ordinances for a grandparent without permission but cannot grant permission unless all other close living relatives are deceased.
Why the 110-Year Rule?
This rule prevents members from being upset when they find that a close relative's work has been done by someone they do not know. Acting against the wishes of close living relatives can result in bad feelings toward you and the Church. Abiding by this policy ensures that the best of feelings can prevail and allows others to have a wonderful temple experience with their close relatives.
To whom are we related?
You are related to blood relatives and their spouses. You should not request reservations for ordinances for the extended family of the spouse, including those of your own spouse. A person may request ordinances for their spouse's extended family only if both the husband and wife are:
Still married to each other
Still living
Note: This rule does not permit an in-law to be the grantor.
Example: You are related to your father's sister (your aunt) and to her husband (your uncle). You are not related to her husband's extended family (parents, siblings, and so on). You are related to the children of your aunt and uncle.
Confidentiality
When working on 110-year issues, you will have access to sensitive information about living people. This information is private and cannot be shared. You must sign a nondisclosure agreement, promising to use the tools only for your assigned tasks and not for personal use.
110-Year Admin Role
110-year issues are worked in Zendesk. You will have the 110-year admin role added to your profile, allowing you to see living people in Family Tree. To activate the role, sign in to FamilySearch.org, click your name, and then click 110-year admin. If the role times out, exit and reactivate it.
Requirements to Approve
To approve a request, the requestor needs to provide the following:
- Requestor's relationship to the deceased.
- Name of the person giving permission (grantor).
- Grantor’s relationship to the deceased.
- Grantor’s complete contact information.
Note: Different cultural guidelines may apply for requestors outside the United States, Canada, Europe, or Australia.
Working 110-year issues
- Open an unresolved or new ticket from your dashboard or the Views tab.
- Assign the ticket to yourself by clicking the drop-down arrow under Assignee.
- Verify the guest's information in the details section of the ticket.
- Determine if you understand or can replicate the issue.
- If yes, do you have the knowledge to resolve the issue. If yes, go to step 5.
- If no, check if the ticket is in the correct group. If not, move it to the correct project or ask your team lead for help.
- Use available resources to resolve the issue, including:
- Data Quality Job Aids
- Help and Learning Center
- Peer agents
- Team Leads
- Other Experts
- Determine if the request should be approved or declined. Update the 110 Approval Status accordingly.
- Respond to the guest using the appropriate email template. See the Email Templates section or click here for more information on emailing guests using templates.
- Mark the ticket as solved.
Sending an Email
Only pre-approved macro templates that are correct and appropriate for the issue should be used. When using data quality templates in Zendesk, do the following:
- In the Zendesk ticket, verify the guest's email address in the To field. Edit the email using the pencil icon next to the guest's name and email address if necessary.
- Read the ticket contents to determine the appropriate template to send.
- Find the list of email templates at the bottom left corner of the open ticket.
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Click Apply Macro and choose the correct data quality topic and language.
Note: You will only see the languages you are assigned to, not necessarily all languages.
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Select the exact template you need and click it to make the template automatically appear in the text editor field. You may need to scroll through the list of templates.
Note: Hover over the name of the email template for a description. When searching in other languages than English, the template title is in English.
- If you select an incorrect template, delete the text and choose another template. To avoid a new template from being inserted incorrectly, remove all incorrect text before selecting a new template.
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Contact your team lead if you need to alter the template contents. Items within a template that can be altered are identified by brackets.
Note: Emojis do not mean the same thing in all cultures and languages. Always maintain a professional decorum and avoid using emojis.
- Click the paperclip icon to add attachments, if necessary. Attachments are indicated by brackets in the body of the template. Use the link icon to add hyperlinks if needed.
- Follow your area's guidelines for working data quality issues and submit the ticket accordingly. Guidelines may include:
- Adding a title in the RE line of the template.
- Reading the contents of the template to ensure it is correct for the situation.
- Submitting the ticket using the appropriate label (Open, Pending, On Hold, or Solved).
Note: The default option for sending a template is Submit as New. Do not use the Submit as New option. Selecting Submit as Open sends a message to the guest and changes the status of the ticket to Open. Selecting Submit as Solved will close the issue in 30 days. There is no other option to close a ticket.
Issues to Escalate
Use the 110-year Decision Tree on every ticket to determine if the issue needs approval or decline and which email template to send. Before going through the decision tree, do the following:
- Escalate any step or common-law relationship issues.
- Escalate missing BIC, missing ordinances and pre-1500 requests.
Missing BIC
Post an internal note with: Missing BIC, birth date, and parents' sealing date.
Missing Ordinances
Post an internal note with: Missing ordinances, date and temple, other information as needed.
Pre-1500
Post an internal note with Pre-1500.
Responding to Requests
Use only pre-approved email templates in Zendesk for all communication with guests to provide clear, concise information.
Familiarize yourself with the available templates and ask your mentor questions as needed.
Missing Information
If required information is missing, send the template Requestor did not provide all requested information. Ensure the request includes the following:
- Requestor's relationship to the deceased.
- Name of the person giving permission (grantor).
- Grantor's relationship to the deceased.
- Grantor's complete contact information including email, phone, or mailing address. Social media information is not valid.
No Close Living Relative
If the requestor indicates that there are no close living relatives, follow these steps in Family Tree:
Activate the 110 admin role and check for close living relatives of the deceased.
Look at the attached sources for close relatives who may be living but are not listed.
Do a quick search for an obituary that lists surviving close relatives.
Note: If there are or could be close living relatives, send the email template Requestor indicates there is no close relative. Add any applicable approved clarifying statements. The requestor is responsible for researching the deceased's family and determining if all close relatives are deceased. Support agents are asked not to spend more than a couple of minutes looking for an obituary.
If the grantor is not one of the following:
- Spouse (undivorced)
- Parent
- Sibling
- Child (age 12+)
Send the email template Requestor identified a grantor who is not a close relative. Add any applicable approved clarifying statements.
Note: A legal adoption is considered the same as a biological relationships.
Approving or Declining an Issue
Steps to approve an issue:
- Sign in to familysearch.org, and turn on the 110-year admin role.
- Go to the Person Page for the deceased (using the ReservePID).
- Verify the grantor's relationship to the deceased.
- Open a different browser, sign in to familysearch.org, and use the Helper function to sign in as the requestor.
- Verify the requestor's relationship to the deceased.
- If it looks right, in the issue description, click the AdminGrantPermissionUrl: link.
- Click Grant Permission.
- In Zendesk, send the guest the correct, pre-approved email.
- Change the 110 approval status to Approved.
- Mark the ticket as solved.
Steps to decline an issue:
- Send an email using the appropriate email template from the drop-down list.
- Change the 110 approval status to Declined.
- Mark the ticket as solved.
Additional notes
Expect new scenarios daily and do not hesitate to ask questions.
The 110-year admin role in FamilySearch times out. Restart it after any breaks.
The requestor is responsible for researching if there are close living relatives. Do not spend more than a few minutes looking for an obituary. Check FamilySearch and Google [name] [death year] [state] obituary.
If the guest does not have an email address and the issue is declined, paste a copy of the email template in the comments section in Zendesk.
Frequently Asked Questions
The following information contains issue-specific guidelines for 110-year requests.
General Guidelines
Always follow area-specific cultural guidelines and escalation processes when resolving guest issues.
Duplicate Ordinances
Question: If there are issues of duplicates when ordinances are requested, is the request denied or approved?
Answer: Guests should reconcile duplications before submitting a 110-year request. If duplicates are found, deny the request and inform the guest to reconcile and resubmit if needed.
Holocaust Victims
Question: Does the 110-year rule apply to Holocaust victims?
Answer: Special conditions apply for Jewish Holocaust victims. These conditions do not change for 110-year requests. For more information, review article 985: "Can I do temple work for victims of the Jewish Holocaust?"
Second Spouse Permissions
Question: If a person remarries a second spouse, can the second spouse apply, or grant permission, for the first spouse's ordinances if the first spouse is deceased?
Answer: A second spouse cannot apply or grant permission for the first spouse's ordinances unless directly related. Regular rules apply, including permission from a close living relative.
Grandmother's Second Husband
Question: If my grandmother had a second husband and all ordinances, except for sealing to spouse, are completed, can I reserve the ordinances? The spouse may have children that are still alive, but I do not know them.
Answer: Permission is needed from a close living relative of both the husband and the first wife. Alternatively, an adult child of both spouses can grant permission. If unsure about living children, do not reserve the ordinances.
Verifying Relationships
Question: In Zendesk, the relationship for the person is shown. Is it enough for the guest to indicate they are related to the person, or do we have to verify the information?
Answer: Always verify relationships provided by guests before granting permission. Trust but verify.
Question: Is the relationship of the guest to the person automatically generated in Zendesk?
Answer: Zendesk tickets indcate a relationship path that can help to verify the information the guest has provided. Use the Tree to verify that what the guest has indicated is true.
Sealing to Spouse Ordinance
Question: A guest requested a sealing to spouse ordinance. When I tried to approve the request, I can only release the ordinance with the person's individual ordinances (baptism, confirmation, initiatory, endowment, and sealing to parents). I cannot approve only the sealing to spouse. How do I answer the guest Should the individual ordinances be requested first?
Answer: A sealing to spouse ordinance can be requested if the individual's ordinances are complete, even if the spouse's ordinances are not. Try granting the ordinance approval through the spouse. If issues arise, use the escalation path for your area.
In-Law Relationships
Question: Are brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law related to each other? Am I related to my in-laws?
Answer: In-laws are not considered related for granting ordinance approval. If an in-law requests ordinances and a close living relative has granted permission, approve the ordinance if all requirements are met.
Question: If an in-law requests the ordinances for a deceased in-law and one of the deceased's close living relatives (an undivorced spouse, parent, child, or sibling) has granted permission, should I approve the ordinance?
Answer: If all requirements for requesting that person's ordinances have been met and if a close living relative has granted permission, you can grant the request.
Friends Requesting Ordinances
Question: Can the friend of a deceased person request their ordinances?
Answer: Friends can request ordinances if a close living relative has granted permission.
Great-Aunt Permissions
Question: Can a great-aunt approve ordinances for an individual if they have no close living relatives?
Answer: If there are no close living relatives, and the requestor is related, the ordinances can be approved.
Cousin Permissions
Question: The guest listed a cousin who lived in the family as a sister as a grantor. Can the request be granted with the cousin's permission?
Answer: Cousins are not considered close living relatives for granting ordinance requests.