Anybody know what the church does to the records of inactive members? I havent given my records to a ward for almost 4 years. Are they still in my old ward (singles ward), or passed along back to my home ward, etc?

They sent it back to my home ward. I think they do this to try to humilate you to your family.

There are different variables that can influence such things. For starters it depends on how thorough the BP and his secretary are. I think at the very least your records automaticly transfer from YSA to your geographic ward after you turn 30. The only things I've found that you can be certain of from the morg is that they will always want money, power, and obedience. Beyond that they tend to change things to best acomplish the aforementioned goals.

'Home Ward' what's that?

Im fairly certain they have a 'mystery' file of unlocated people...Complete with 'Free Labor' (missionaries) tasked to HUNT YOU DOWN LIKE A RABID DOG!

(what would a 'home ward' be???) (other than for a missionary, deployed service member, or college student)

I've heard that if you've moved and they don't have your new address they send it to Salt Lake. can anybody confirm ?

I don't have any proof, but when I told my last bishop to put me in the Do Not Contact list before I resigned, he told me YSA wards didn't hold on to no-contact or inactives' records but send them all to COB.

I don't know if that's standard procedure, or if he just did it to inflate his activity percentages.

The days of physical, paper records went away years ago.

The record of every member is stored as data in a big database in Salt Lake. Within that record is a field that places the person in a geographical assigned ward. That particular ward gets a download from the big database for all people assigned to that ward.

If "the church" knows where you live, then the record will have your ward listed in the record's field, and you will show up on the local ward's computer.

If they don't know where you live, then the field will be blank. Your "record" is still in Salt Lake HQ in either case, but the info doesn't get sent (downloaded) anywhere. (Other than to the dear old ladies in Salt Lake assigned to find you.)

So, the question can be, "So, where does the data in the Salt Lake database have me assigned?" That depends on how diligent the local clerks are in cleaning out their respective databases. Most likely, you're not assigned to a ward. Or, it could be you are assigned to a ward where the locals just don't care if you are assigned to them or not.

...was that "my ward" didn't have me on their records. I had moved several times in the 20+ years since I went inactive. Who knows what the church had for my last location. I guess one of the benefits of formally resigning is that now my kin won't be getting calls from the church trying to locate me.

... you forgot to mention that those little old ladies send out letters to the ward clerks about contacting people in their ward that might know of the whereabouts of the inactive missing record. Some clerks are kind enough to file those letters in the round file at the end of the desk. Some clerks are also very efficient at clicking past all of the check boxes on the software for getting a Bishops approval at sending out a record with an unknown or blank address. In my opinion, if the member wants to be contacted, they will find the closest church and have their record pulled.

A little over a decade ago, they were pretty determined when they tried to track you down. I got a call from one of the trackers asking me about my Ex-wife's, Ex-husband. A guy we hadn't seen in 15 years.

Someone in SLC was sitting on a mountain of data looking for someone and thought, I guess I'll call his Ex-wife's Ex-husband. He might know how to find him.

No, seriously. I am a membership clerk currently in my Ward. If we get a new record, and one of the HP or EQ members goes out to try and find the person, and they aren't there, they get sent to SLC where Elderly as opposed to Elders Missionaries try to harass next of kin to locate where they are.