Baptism for the Dead Baptism for the Dead Baptismal font in the Salt Lake Temple. In such fonts, Latter-day Saints perform proxy baptisms on behalf of people who have died without being baptized. The first public affirmation of the ordinance of baptism for the dead in the Church was Joseph Smith's funeral sermon for Seymour Brunson in Nauvoo in August 1840. The first baptisms for the dead in modern times were done in the Mississippi River near Nauvoo. In November 1841 the font in the unfinished Nauvoo Temple was so dedicated.
Women are to be baptized for women and men for men.
The law of agency is inviolate in this world and the world to come. Thus, those served by proxy have the right to accept or reject the ordinances. In the early years of the Church, proxy baptisms were performed only for direct blood ancestors, usually no more than four generations back. Today, Latter-day Saints are baptized not only for their own forebears but also for other persons, unrelated to them, identified through the name extraction program. The practice reflects the yearning of children for their parents and of parents for their children, and charitable feelings for others as well, that they receive the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ .