Require Edit to change established date and place of marriage
I would like to see a change to the fields for marriage date and place so that once a date and place is established, it can be changed only by editing the fields. Currently the date and place changes every time a new record is added to the profile. Since there is no way to identify a marriage intention from an actual marriage, by adding a source document showing the date and place of a marriage intention that is different from the marriage date, the information in the date and place field change automatically. Then, if you attempt to edit what shows as the date and place of marriage, you may have to delete up to a dozen entries before you get the correct one to display. As an example, ten dates & places are listed from ten different source document but only the bottom one is standardized. I cannot edit the top entry to display the correct date and place because a message displays that the date/place already exists, and I have to delete nine lines before I get to the bottom correct entry. The birth and death fields do not change date and place when a new record is added; only the marriage field does, and it is a complete waste of time to have to cycle through multiple lines, deleting them to get to the correct line. Simply make the field require an edit be selected in order to change the date and it should not make any difference how many times the same date and place are displayed. No wonder that people do not correct the marriage field as it requires too much time and effort as the process currently stands.
Comments
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No, the couple event shown in the Family Members section does not change automatically, nor does it change every time a new record is added to the profile. The user has to choose to add the new event in Source Linker.
That said, the couple relationship section unquestionably needs some changes, starting with a way to choose which event is displayed that's better than the current "chronologically earliest".
Deleting duplicate relationship events is the correct way to fix a relationship section that has been littered by users unaware that they aren't required to take Source Linker up on every offer.
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For some unknown reason FamilySearch developers continue to ignore the need for an overhaul of the Couple Relationship area. I have suggested that it should be made impossible to carry marriage details across when linking the source, which would force users to add the marriage events manually. When doing this they would often realise the details do not relate to the marriage ceremony itself - just to the issue of a licence, or related to banns.
The other ability, which many users have requested over a number of years, would be for the preferred / correct data to be chosen from a drop-down list of the multiple items that have found their way into the Couple Relationship section. Take the example below. The item with the earlier date appears on the Details page, but it is likely this relates to the calling of banns and the marriage actually took place on 17 May 1823. However, to get that date displayed on the Details page, one would have to delete the other three events.
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I would like to see headings such as "banns", "marriage license date", "marriage date" to differentiate between those various dates. Currently, when a record is indexed, there is no ability to select any heading other than birth/christening, marriage, or burial. That is insufficient.
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