Queen Elizabeth's Mother Was Baptized As A Mormon

Queen Elizabeth's mother has been baptized as a Mormon. The Queen Mother didn't practice the religion when she was alive: she was a faithful member of the Church of England. But Helen Radkey, a former Mormon herself, discovered the “proxy baptism” of the royal after analyzing the church's public genealogical database, called Family Search. She also found that at least 20 Holocaust victims have been baptized in the past five years in defiance of church rules.

The Mormon practice of baptizing the dead has caused controversy before, and in 1995 the church banned baptisms of victims of the Holocaust, restricting proxy baptisms to family ancestors. Radkey, who was excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the researcher who discovered in 2012 that Anne Frank had been baptized by an LDS church member.

Radkey shared her findings Thursday with the Associated Press. Radkey said celebrities recently baptized by members, apparently without family connection or permission, included Marilyn Monroe and the grandparents of Joe Biden, John McCain, Mike Pence, Carrie Fisher and Kim Kardashian. The deceased grandparents of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg have also reportedly been baptized by LDS church members, contrary to Mormon church rules.

"The church cares deeply about ensuring these standards are maintained," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Dead persons baptized by proxy don't automatically become members of the church; they can either accept or refuse the offer in the afterlife.

"The ordinance does not force deceased persons to become members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or 'Mormons,' nor does the Church list deceased persons as members of the Church," the LDS website read. "In short, there is no change in the religion or heritage of the recipient or of the recipient's descendants — the notion of coerced conversion is utterly contrary to Church doctrine."

All members of the church have access to the Family Search database, which lists the names of individuals who have been baptized after death. Radkey was able to search the database using a login given to her by a Mormon friend.

Radkey came across Elie Wiesel on a list of names "ready" for baptism in 2012, which led the famed Holocaust survivor to call on Mitt Romney to ask the religion to halt baptisms of all Holocaust survivors. The church had also allegedly performed nine proxy baptisms for Anne Frank, a Holocaust victim, between 1989 and 1999. The church denounced that report and claimed that it doesn't accept Holocaust victims for proxy baptism.

"The Church keeps its word and is absolutely firm in its commitment to not accept the names of Holocaust victims for proxy baptism," LDS Church spokesman Michael Purdy said in a 2012 statement to CNN.