A letter from the First Presidency to Spencer W. Kimball stated that “Negro members may properly receive patriarchal blessings.” That they may be declared “of certain lineage does not mean that the person’s blood may not be intermingled with the blood of other races.” That persons baptized become “members of the House of Israel by adoption . . . is not the doctrine of the Church.” Joseph Anderson, by direction of the First Presidency, to Spencer W. Kimball, May 28, 1971, Kimball Papers. See Armand L. Mauss, “In Search of Ephraim,” Journal of Mormon History 25, no. 2 (spring 1999) 168–69.