A Question about the Ordinances Ready App

I received an email comment concerning the potential restrictions on the number of people who can be reserved for ordinances on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. The commentator expressed dismay at the limitation because he was concerned that he would not have "enough" ordinances for his family.  The comment was sent in response to a presentation which I did recently. Here is my reply:

Perhaps you didn't understand that the Ordinances Ready app is the answer. Each person is supposed to use the app for his or her own names. So, if you have a grandchild who is able to go to the Temple, he or she logs into FamilySearch and can get names from their own list or the from the following order: 

1. It pulls names from your own reservation list on FamilySearch.org
2. It pulls from any ordinances you personally have shared with the Temples
3. It pulls names related to you from the global temple list of shared names
4. It finally walks up and down your lines looking for other available ordinances (i.e.
green icons)
5. If none of these work, it pulls a name of an ancestor from the global temple list 

Essentially, you can use the app to recapture names that you personally have shared with the Temple. You can also do what I do. I maintain an "unreserved list." Because I had so many names on my list, I "unreserved" some of them, i.e. turned them into green icons on the Family Tree. I put all of these "unreserved" names on a list on Google Docs or Word so that if I needed more names, I could add them to my Temple list assuming someone in the family had not found them previously and done the work. With a limit, we do not have to be concerned that someone else will hoard the names and not do the work.

I hope that helps to explain why having a limit will not be a burden on anyone. Once you reach your limit, keep on finding names and put them on your unreserved list. Then you will have all the names you need. But the whole idea is that your family can use the Ordinances Ready app to do work you, a close relative, have shared with the Temples. 

For example, I do not have any baptisms on my Temple list right now but I can go to the Ordinances Ready list and get four names from my shared names or from the shared names of my close relatives if I needed to do so. 

Of course, the question goes deeper than a simple concern about maintaining a cushion of ordinances for family members. The key issue is that historically members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long relied upon the work of a few dedicated genealogical researchers, not only to provide names for Temple ordinances but also to do all of the genealogical research for a family.  I see the transition from this traditional model to emphasizing the need for each person, including young people, to be actively involved in the process.

Because the Ordinances Ready app draws primarily from the names which have been already submitted, whether or not the names are duplicates or unrelated is essentially moot. The names have already been submitted.

Hopefully, the members of the Church will not use the Ordinances Ready app as an excuse to avoid doing any original research.