Take a Name is a mobile app that helps LDS Church members take names to the temple. It helps you find, reserve, and print family names so you can spend more time in the temple with your ancestors instead of outside searching for them.
- Find temple ready ancestors. The app searches the FamilySearch tree for your deceased ancestors and double checks that LDS ordinances are ready for the temple.
- Request LDS ordinances and print temple cards from your phone.
- Try before you buy. Try the app for free. Purchase the app via in-app purchase if you find it useful.
- Less time searching. More time serving. The app typically delivers dozens of temple ready family names in a matter of minutes.
Learn more about the app or download it for Apple iOS.
The app is FamilySearch certified and requires a FamilySearch account with access to LDS ordinances.
I know Take-a-Name and similar apps sound promising, and they’ve gained popularity lately. But users might want to be aware of some issues with these types of apps.
Unfortunately, they imply that doing family history means searching Family Tree for temple-ready names. But the Church does not populate Family Tree with temple-ready names. Often names found using these apps are erroneous or duplicates.
Another problem occurring more often now (because so many of the old duplicates have been reserved with name-finding apps) is that these apps take names someone else is currently in the process of reserving. They are not time-sensitive.
Some time ago a sister called me tearfully to say that someone had used an app to take the names she had just barely added and needed for her teens for baptisms. This was very discouraging for her as she was fairly new to family history. She’s not the only one who has mentioned this problem.
The BYU Family History Library webinar page (https://sites.lib.byu.edu/familyhistory/classes-and-webinars/online-webinars) has a couple of webinars that may be of interest:
“Understanding the Data in FamilySearch Family Tree”
“What Every Family Tree User Should Know About Name-Finding Apps.”
The latter outlines some of the cautions about using name-finding apps and also illustrates an alternate process that focuses on the Spirit.
One other thing that may be of interest–Ron Tanner presented at the 2017 BYU Family History & Genealogy Conference. He said that as of a few weeks prior, the number of names in Family Tree was about 1.14 billion.
That sounds like a lot (and it is 🙂 ) but (continuing with my thoughts now, not Ron’s)–the number of people who have lived on the earth is estimated to be around 110 billion.
Granted, records are not available for many of those who have lived on the earth; still, records are available for millions of those who need to be added to Family Tree. By definition, name-finding apps that crawl Family Tree for names don’t find these missing names–because they’re not there!
Another interesting thing–as I’ve worked one-on-one with people, I’ve discovered that *adding* a name to Family Tree does so much more to turn hearts and convert people to family history than simply using an app to find a name already in Family Tree that may or may not really need temple work.
Hope this information is helpful!
I agree totally with Kathryn’s comments. Finding Names apps can be a disaster when sealings are done for incorrect relationships. Let’s do the sourcing work necessary to prove the date before going to the temple. We should respect the work we do in temples more than making it an easy-quick-fix.
How do I get the barcode numbers?
Marva, For questions about the app, see the Help or Contact options in the app.
I went to Jordan River Temple and she said she can’t scan the barcodes on the app? Is it her, the temple or the app?
How do you change address that prints out on the card? Currently prints out an old address.
Thank you for your help.
You can change your address in FamilySearch.org. Click your name in the upper right corner, then Settings, then on the Contact tab you can change your address.