Multiple parents listed
I have a record where the person' birth mother and adopted parents are listed. See screen shot below. The original indexer only listed the mothers name with no fathers name. Would it be appropriate to list the adopted parents as well or instead of the birth mother? Both mother's have the same last name so I assume the birth mother is the adopted father's sister. From the other records on the register it is apparent that three other children in this family were baptized at the same time. So anyone that attaches the record will see this child and will be able to see all of the information so indexing just the birth mother would also be appropriate. I've left the document unsubmitted.
South Africa—Church of the Province of South Africa, Parish Registers, 1801–2004 [Part E][M3CJ-BGY]
Answers
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Interestingly the adopted parents are listed in a parenthetical note. So for the baptism event the birth mother was apparently living and then the note of adoption added later (that would be my guess - unless the birth mother had passed before the time of baptism). It depends on which Project rules override - but my general understanding of the general indexing guidelines for this case - would be to not include the adopted parents in a new entry. Since there is no indexing option for indicating 'adopted' type relationship - I think this makes sense. The researcher (whenever that occurs) will unfortunately need to note and interpret the correct relations (just limitations of the web indexing i guess).
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A similar situation recently came up on a birth record with both birth and adoptive parents listed. This is what @Melissa S Hines found.
How should I index multiple spouses or parents?
Article Id: 1287
December 29, 2020
When the document lists multiple spouses or parents, index only the current spouse or parents. Here are some quick guidelines for these situations:
- For multiple spouses, index only the present or current spouse.
- For multiple parents, such as a set of birth parents and a set of adoptive parents, index only the current set of adoptive parents.
- Do not add records to include the other individuals. The information is not lost. After we publish the records, researchers can view the image and gather any additional information in it.
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For the second bullet point - please note the record is baptism and the birth mother appears to be listed (meaning she must have been alive at that event). Whether she was the current parent or not I don't know...
So the instructions about 'parenthetical notes' or notes in general may come into play here ...
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I am also passing a comment by @annewandering as well,
The researcher may be able to see the document if it is released to the public so can see both sets of parents. This is a sensitive issue which is one reason why the legal parents are the ones who are indexed and it is left to the researcher to do further investigation if they wish.
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My comment:
In the U.S. it is common to hear of sealed and unsealed adoption records. In other countries that may not be the case. It is the parents' choice to tell their child if they are adopted, and they may have good reasons not to. A person should not find out they were adopted by a scribe's thoughtlessness.
In this baptism record, the birth/adoptive parents, and possibly the child are deceased. In the earlier referenced birth record, the birth was in the 1950s and some or all of the parties were still alive.
Remember the records we input facilitate researchers in their ancestry searches, but we still need to respect the privacy of those still living.
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This record shows birth 1924 and baptism 1926 - persons could be still living - but less likely. The project date range goes to 2004 so any redaction of records would be done post indexing.
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