Move Records Previously Marked Deceased

Move your previously-marked deceased records, all at once, into the "Mark as Deceased" system in Realm.

You must be an administrator to do this.
The fields you are moving data from must be either date fields or yes/no fields.
The old field you used to mark deceased must have a "Display For" setting of "People" only, rather than something else, like "Business".

CAUTION: This process will automatically overwrite personal, financial, groups, and other data connected with each profile that uses your old "deceased" profile field. Please proceed with caution. For a video and details about how Realm will handle the changes to various profile fields, see How Previous Deceased Data is Converted.

If you used a custom profile field to mark the profiles of deceased congregants before Realm introduced the Mark as Deceased feature, you should convert those old records. This ensures that all those profiles' settings for groups, emails, giving, and so on, are taken care of and are marked, consistent with other profiles, for deceased congregants. Luckily, you can convert them all at once.

In the top-left corner, click your ministry hub then Realm. Then click Profiles > Settings.
On the Profile Fields tab, locate the field you used to mark deceased, click , and select Move field data.
Make sure Date of Death is in the Destination field. If not, select it from the drop-down.
Click Continue.
If you're moving data from a yes/no field, select which option indicates the profile owner has passed away.
To see all the changes that will be made by this move, read How Previous Deceased Data is Converted.
To see the full list of profiles affected by this move, click custom query in the pop-up. If not, skip to the next step.
1. On the Custom Query page that opens, click the Select a main attribute drop-down list, select your old field for deceased, and set it to "is not blank".
2. Set the SHOW drop-down to "People".
3. Under INCLUDE, select Inactive Profiles.
4. Click Show Results.
When you're ready, click Permanently mark <#> people as deceased. Note that this process will automatically deactivate the field you previously used to mark congregants deceased. You can reactivate it later, but it's not recommended since you'll lose the benefits of the "Mark as Deceased" feature.
A message displays. Confirm you're ready to proceed.

How Previous Deceased Data is Converted

The rules Realm follows for moving field data.

When you launch the Move field data process on the Profile Fields tab for deceased records, here are the changes that Realm makes automatically when moving those records into its Mark as Deceased tracking system.

Date Setting

Date of Death

If you were using a date field to denote the death of a congregant and used it to launch the Move Data process, Realm will assign this date as the date of death.

If you've already added a date of death using the Mark as Deceased process, it will not be overwritten.

If you already used the Mark as Deceased process and entered the date as unknown, it will be overwritten with this date.

If you were using a yes/no field to denote deaths, Realm will mark the date of death as unknown. If needed, you can add the date manually to each profile when the process finishes.

User Settings

Responsibilities: If the deceased was the sole Realm administrator, you will not be able to mark them deceased until another administrator has been added.
Otherwise, they will be removed from the list of users, and permissions will no longer be assigned to these logins.

Reports

Saved Reports: If the deceased was a user with permissions, all of their saved reports will be deleted.

System Information

Account Status: If the deceased did not have a login (account) but was opted in to the online directory, they will be removed from the from it.
If they had a login (account), they will be removed from the online directory, their login will be disabled, and they will no longer receive system emails.
Individual Status: This will be changed to "Deceased".
Privacy: If the deceased's privacy was set to Users with permission only, it will remain as that. If it was set to anything else, it will be changed to Users with permission only.

Contact Information

Individual Photo: If the deceased was a single-member family primary adult, the photo will be made visible to users with permission only.
If the deceased was a child with only one primary adult in the family, or if the child was the only member of the family, the photo will visible to only users with permission as well as any surviving adult primary family member.
In all other cases, the photo will be made visible to only family and users with permission.
Family Photo: The family photo will no longer be linked with other family members' profiles.
Home Address, Alternate Address: If none, the field will be hidden. If the home address or alternate address is linked to other family members, it will no longer be linked.
Primary Email: If no primary email, the field will be hidden. If an email is listed, it will no longer receive notifications from Realm.
Birthday: If no birthday is listed, the field will be displayed as empty but editable. If a birthday is listed, the field will keep the date. Realm will cease calculating the age of this person.
Profile Alert (if used): As before, only users with permission to see profile alerts will see them now. Any profile alerts, or lack of profile alerts, for the record will be left as-is.
Member Status (if used): Will be unchanged.

Family Information

Family Label Name (for deceased): Will be copied from surviving primary family member.
Family Position (for deceased): Will be unchanged.
Marital Status (for deceased): Will be unchanged.
Family Label Name (for surviving primary): Will change to new, single primary family label name.
Family Position (for surviving primary): Will be unchanged.
Marital Status (for surviving primary): Will be unchanged.

Groups

Ministry Area Leader: Will be removed as ministry area leader. Administrators and users with ministry area permissions will be notified.
Group Leader: Will be moved to the past participants section for all groups. All history will be kept. Administrators and users with ministry area permissions will be notified.
Group Participant (in either system or non-system groups): Will be moved to the past participants section for all groups. All history will be kept.

Posts and Messages

Posts: All past posts and comments will continue to show in the News feed.
Messages: All past messages will continue to show in Messages.
Message Threads: All past group message threads will continue without the deceased congregant.

Giving and Pledges

Giving Number: If different from other primary or if the deceased congregant was the sole primary in the family, the giving number will remain with the profile.
If giving number is the same for the other primary in the family, it will be removed from the deceased congregant's profile, but remain on the survivor's.
Shared Giving: If giving is shared between two primary family members, past gifts will be transferred to the surviving primary.
Recurring Gifts: Scheduled recurring gifts will be stopped and payment methods will be deactivated.
Current Pledges: If deceased is sole primary or primaries don't share giving, pledges will be left incomplete. If deceased shares giving with another primary, pledges will remain with the other's profile.
Giving Statement: If deceased was sole primary or in a family with another primary but did not share giving, past gifts will be included in giving statement. If giving was shared with other primary, past gifts will be included in the other's giving statement.

Pathways

Pathway Leader: Deceased will be removed as pathway leader and all his or her assignments will be removed. All history will be kept. Administrators and users with pathways permissions will be notified.
Step Leader: Deceased will be removed as a step leader and all his or her assignments will be removed. All history will be kept. Administrators and users with pathways permissions will be notified.
Pathway Participant: Deceased will be moved to the past participants section for all pathways. If leaders have been assigned to the individual, they will be removed. All history will be kept. Administrators and users with pathways permissions will be notified.

Registration

Event Contact: Deceased will be removed as event contact. Administrators will be notified if no event contacts remain.
Event Registrant: Registrant will not be automatically removed, but all registration will be flagged for further action.

Other

Sacraments: Sacraments will not be affected.

What would you like to know more about?