Family Name Assist Tool Simplifies Temple and Family History Work for Latter-day Saints

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By Trent Toone, Church News

Taking a family name to the temple to perform a proxy baptism and confirmation used to be a daunting process for a new member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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It involved creating a FamilySearch account, entering information, creating a family tree, identifying an ancestor and submitting that name to the temple, among other steps depending on various circumstances.

FamilySearch engineers have now greatly simplified the process so that all a bishop, elders quorum president or counselor in the Relief Society presidency needs to do is ask the member, “Who would you like to be baptized for in the temple?”

The tool is called “Family Name Assist,” and it requires zero family history expertise or research, said Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, a General Authority Seventy who serves as executive director of the Church’s Family History Department.

“All a leader has to know to do is ask the question,” he said. “Our research shows that most of the time, new members want to be baptized for a deceased grandparent. ... This offers the opportunity to immediately have that emotional connection to a family member with an ordinance in the temple — a beautiful thing — without the burden of having to do any family history work.”

Family Name Assist was first introduced during the 2024 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction.

Leaders can use Family Name Assist when a member or youth comes for a temple recommend interview for the first time, said Elder Mark A. Bragg, a General Authority Seventy who also serves as an assistant executive director in the Family History Department and President of the Church’s North America West Area.

“What I love about this is that in the mind of the new or returning member, or youth, it immediately connects the house of the Lord with family history work — you get the recommend and the family name — it’s cemented in their mind that the two are linked, not just here, but eternally," he said. “That is an important link because it then sets a pattern for the rest of their life as they worship in the temple.”

New Family Name Assist Landing Page

To help create greater awareness and provide further assistance for Family Name Assist, the Church has created a new familysearch.org landing page (www.familysearch.org/en/temple/guide-me/family-name-assist) with the following features:

• Two short videos for helping new/returning members and youth
• A Demo feature that allows leaders or members to view a demonstration of the process of guiding a member to get a family name to take to the temple
• A Get Started link for a leader to start the process
• Frequently asked questions
• Additional resources

Who Can Use Family Name Assist?

Latter-day Saints who serve in ward councils or who have access to Leader and Clerk Resources on ChurchofJesusChrist.org can use Family Name Assist, including bishoprics and branch presidencies, ward clerks and executive secretaries, elders quorum, Relief Society, Primary, Young Women presidencies, Sunday School presidencies, the ward mission leader and the Temple and Family History leader.

Success Stories

The two Church leaders agreed that Family Name Assist has been a blessing to those who have used it in the last year.

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A branch president in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — an area with technology and limited Internet access — used the tool to help 40 youth and unendowed adults prepare family names for the temple.

A Relief Society counselor in Colonia Juárez, Mexico, used Family Name Assist to help more than 135 members.

A Primary counselor in Auckland, New Zealand, used the tool to assist 60 members.

A bishopric counselor in a Tongan ward in Utah helped over 100 members.

Once he discovered it, a bishop in Orange County, California, has used Family Name Assist in every youth interview.

“There hasn’t been a youth in his ward that hasn’t gone to the house of the Lord without an ancestor’s name,” Elder Bragg said. “It’s starting to become part of their culture, and that is what we want to see.”

Golden Opportunity

Elder Hamilton said the success stories show that once leaders learn about the tool, they recognize its value and use it repeatedly. Using Family Name Assist provides leaders with a golden opportunity “to teach, bless and strengthen the faith and testimonies of new, tender members.”

Added Elder Bragg, “You can talk about what this truly means to the ancestor. It becomes much deeper than an administrative function. It is an opportunity to bear witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

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