Which person listed is the "principal person" for each entry?

jonemari

US, Virginia—Vital Records, 1715–1901 [Part B][M3RG-YR9]

Is the first person listed considered the principal person, no matter if it is a female or a male?

Thank you for your help. -- M. Jones

erutherford

When it's Primary/Spouse rather than Male/Female, it will be the first person listed.

jonemari

Thank you. 😊

KeeJoyceAnn1

@jonemari, thank you for asking for clarification on this matter. It's so great to see you wanting to be totally accurate with indexing these records.

In researching this, I found no clear answer in the field helps, project instructions, or general indexing guidelines. However, I found a Knowledge Article in the Help Center titled, Who is the principal person in a historical record?

It can be found here https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/who-is-the-principal-person-in-a-historical-record

This article lists a few scenarios where who the principal person might be. For a marriage, it says it would be either the bride or the groom.