Stop Telling People they have no Temple Opportunities in their FamilySearch Family Tree

Recently, I have been hearing an increasing number of stories from people who have visited a Family History Center for help in finding names to take to the Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have been told that there are no such opportunities available to them. In the most recent example of this egregious problem, my friend was referred to the same Family History Center for help on two separate occasions and talked to two different people both of whom, after a cursory review of my friend's portion of the FamilySearch Family Tree told her that there were no "opportunities" for research and that she should just go home. More recently, she has learned about the Ordinances Ready program from FamilySearch.org and is thrilled with the opportunities she now has to take some of her own family names to the Temple.

Telling someone that their portion of the Family Tree is not in need of any further research is simply a lie. Even if a person is adopted or a foundling, they can take a DNA test and try and find some relatives. In almost 38 years of examining thousands of pedigrees, I have never found one that could not be extended either by ascendancy or descendency research. If a person has enough motivation and interest to visit a Family History Center why would you kill that interest by telling them that nothing could be done?

I wish I could have the opportunity to sit down with these people who tell others that they have no opportunities and spend an hour or two going over their own portion of the Family Tree. I am sure I could show them that their own tree is full of errors, inconsistencies, and has more than enough opportunities to keep them busy the rest of their lives.