I have been a member for a really long time. I attend SM for family reasons. I would like to view my church records the same ones available to the BP and SP. we are in a new ward and I want to know what they will be reading about me.

Doctors and hospitals also own our medical records. We don't. But I think we have better access than in the past.

It seems like legally we should have access to that. I don't think it's anything that is 'willingly' shared.

...after dutifully searching the LDS.org database, I found your Church records. No thanks neccessary...............


http://www.yourldsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/First-Day-of-Primary-Certificate-1024x791.jpg

All you have to do is ask the ward membership clerk and he will sit down with you. I have done that job.

Legally, in the US, we don't have "on demand" access to records kept on us by private organizations. Remember that it is only relatively recently that laws were passed giving us access to our own credit reports, and the right to correct errors in those records.

HIPAA (medical records) and FERPA (academic records) give us rights to access to our medical and academic records, and have strong privacy safeguards about who else can or cannot access our records.

So, access to records our employers or churches or political parties or what-have-you keep on us is not some sort of constitutional right. In general, we don't have access to them unless there are specific laws giving us access. The Freedom of Information Act provides for access to certain government documents. It is also relatively recent, and does not apply to private organizations.

That is my curbside lawyer view. Real lawyers may have additions or corrections. I'm sure there are plenty of nuances.

Of course not.

I concur

Records are very often incorrect.

For example they think I am dead :)

On the other hand; my wife died almost 10 years ago and they keep sending stuff for her to my house. Including creepy empty envelopes.

I wonder if this is common. I'd laugh if it wasn't so creepy including the empty envelopes. Those must be some kind of a test. They know someone is picking up their mail and they continue for some reason to assume it's your wife and not you.

The first time I received an empty envelope I posted about it here. Someone who was a former ward clerk said it was common. They are hoping the post office will send them a forwarding address.

Thanks everyone. I will try and report back.

Good luck.The records are property of LDSInc, they don't belong to usus



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2015 10:52PM by angela.