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New record type for Marriage License is needed

mathgeek2000
mathgeek2000 ✭
June 22, 2022 in Suggest an Idea

Today, I see a lot of records where the transcribed marriage data is misleading. The original record is a Marriage License (or a Marriage License Register), and yet the data is currently transcribed as a Marriage record and lists the marriage date. The license date is usually at least a few days BEFORE the date of marriage. This leads to confusion in the indexed/transcribed data.

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New · Last Updated June 22, 2022

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  • Paul W
    Paul W ✭✭✭✭✭
    June 22, 2022 edited June 22, 2022

    @mathgeek2000

    This has been suggested on a number of occasions, over a period of several years. The good news is that FamilySearch does now seem to be indexing M/L records as "Marriage Notice", so it is clear the reference is not to the actual event / ceremony. Sadly, I don't think there is any plan to go back on projects previously indexed as a "Marriage", so it is clear that the dates / locations do not exactly match the actual marriage details.

    As you have found, the earliest date against any multiple events that end up in the Relationship Events section gets carried over to the couple's person pages. If I can identify the event relates to a licence or banns (it is not always easy to tell) I do not carry this across during the source linking process - knowing the consequences! However, many users are not going to think about this, with the result being that my carefully researched (and correct) marriage detail gets replaced (on the person page) by the one for the marriage licence.

    Hopefully, all new FamilySearch licence / banns projects are defined as "Marriage Notices", which means (when added to an ID) they go to the "Other Information" section, rather than "Vitals".

    Sadly, I believe it unlikely any action will be taken regarding the existing (older) records of this type.

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