I just finished up a stack of temple cards. What do you do with them? Throw them out? That almost seems sacrilegious. These are the records that the temple work has been completed. I’ve become attached to these cards, as they represent people (some of them I knew in life). But what do you do? Put them in a scrapbook? I’m looking for ideas.
I face that same challenge. Once I’ve confirmed that the work is correctly processed on FamilySearch, I think we’re good to toss them, but it’s awfully hard to do. Looking forward to some ideas here!
Since the stamped cards are the proof the work was done, I tuck them in the acetate page that holds the relevant family group sheet in my Book of Remembrance.
I have a little shoebox in my closet full of them. It’s the perfect size for the cards, and that way they don’t take up much space.
Having served a mission for family search you are supposed to keep them as proof of work done. Have fun with that – I have over 400 🙂
I think storing it as a “source document” for family history purposes is a good idea. Just in case. 🙂
I have actually encountered a situation back when we had Patron Notification Forms, where names had been done & someone else had resubmitted them to be done again, which was not uncommon when you had to wait for 2 years for the ordinances to show up on the IGI. Back then, they only printed one PNF, & they told us to keep it as proof, which I had done. (I still have them all in a small binder) When I phoned Salt Lake, they told me to make a copy of my PNF & mail it to them, so I did, & the names were not redone. Like Beverley, I have more than a few of the completed temple cards.Ten years ago, I decided to put the Family Group Records in my Book of Remembrance in acetate sheets. Now the cards get dropped in the appropriate “page” after I have recorded the ordinances on the FGR, as my “hard copy”. If I need to lay my hands on one, I know right where to find it, & so does everyone else in the family. I will need a 2nd Book of Rem soon, but I think that is a small price to pay to have them all where I can find them if needed.
I only print out a card for an ordinance I’m about to do. I’ve had too many times losing cards and having cards that get one thing done and wait months/years before I can get to them again. I’m not super attached to doing the work myself, so long as it gets done.
I don’t keep the cards, cause it ends up being 3-4 cards per person, which is more than unwieldy. I don’t need them as proof as it won’t hurt if it needs to be done again, and -they- know when their work was done.
The Millennium is going to involve an insane amount of paperwork just to get every thing untangled.
They have served their purpose. Keep them or throw them in the recycle bin, as you choose. There is no sacrilege in discarding them.
One of the benefits *and* drawbacks of Family Tree is the ease in deleting and merging individuals along with any associated temple work. My husband’s grandfather was merged with his brother who died as an infant. It took quite a bit of working with FamilySearch to get them unmerged and have the appropriate temple work to show back up. The cards are official documentation – you don’t have to keep them, but they are valuable to the church.
Scan or photograph the cards for reference and recycle the paper.
I clip the ordinance fields out and shred them finely and flush them, or burn them, making sure that you can’t discern the shape of the ordinance in what’s left of the card. Then I can use the rest of the card for dust rags, paint rags, scratch pads, or whatever.
Scan them. Attach a PDF of them to whatever family-tree software you use (or Family Search) as a “source document”. Toss them.
I have to politely disagree with Frank. I keep them for all the reasons listed above – too many times the ordinances go missing on Family Tree because it is entirely crowd-sourced. So the cards are a way to establish the work has been done. For me this is more than an administrative detail – it has deep spiritual meaning. The card represents that I have thought about that person. I’ve thought about them as an individual worthy of my serious consideration in the time I spend researching them and in the time I, or others, spend acting as their proxy. That work, like the saints at Bountiful who touched the Savior’s wounds, is done one person at a time to underscore the worth of each individual soul. That process is meant to refine us and make us more loving and kind to the living souls we encounter every day. To say it doesn’t matter if the work is repeated diminishes this thoughtful encounter with the individual and turns them into objects used to demonstrate our righteousness or dutifulness. I’m not saying that is what Frank is doing (don’t get me wrong!), but for me the cards as anchors for the ordinance data are reminders that each individual matters to their heavenly parents.
I performed a search on how to manage temple cards and found this forum. I have to agree with Beverly and HH9.
1) As already mentioned, I have had to thoughtfully merge in FamilySearch so as not to lose the temple ordinance work that has already been performed. Temple cards provide proof of the temple work in case a merger goes south.
2) We are a recording keeping people. Being a membership clerk, and I might add, my wife is the ward historian, the church keeps and enormous amount of records and this is for good reason. It is clear that the scriptures say ‘out of the books we will be judged’.
From a personal point of view, I usually labor over most of the names that I prepare for the temple. Being a retired engineer I am very familiar with the Excel spreadsheet software (regardless of the office suite that is used) This is one of my main tools in building families from various sources before the data is moved to RootsMagic, FamilySearch, and Ancestry. With embedded formulas I calculate the age of the parents at the birth of each child, birth year and age of each child and calculate spacing between each child, calculate the marriage date etc. This entire exercise exposes the family dynamics of that family, unusual child spacing, a potential second marriage etc. I am able to read between the lines and gain some insights into that family that would otherwise go unnoticed using this process. More complex issues are written up in a word doc with imbedded images of various data sources and imported into “Memories” on FamilySearch for me and others that come after me. This becomes a very personal thing, therefore I keep the cards for this reason and the reasons mentioned above. Once the work has been performed I save the cards. I am currently using a file-box with tabs to indicate the status of cards. Still fine tuning this process.
I have heard from temple workers that they shred completed ordinance cards. It was when I said I didn’t want my cards back after I completed the ordinance, and he said, “Okay, we’ll shred them then.” Possibly in the Redlands California Temple. I have asked this in the FamilySearch chat a few times and one time I was told to keep them, one said I could keep them or destroy them (assuming it would be in the same way you would to a duplicate card without ordinances.) I have shredded a large stack of my personal cards, and I have a second stack with which I will probably do the same. It has occurred to me before that this is, as you put it, sacrilegious, and I admit it does give me a bit of a bad vibe, but I don’t think it would serve any good purpose when it’s stowed away either. This comment section has given me more insight into the question, that they would serve as records, which seems to be the majority view here. What I do now is just say I don’t want the cards back at the temple, like I mentioned above, and I would guess that the temple will discard them.