person states "NOT" married
Often, on documents, the subject states they are NOT married. Wouldn't it be helpful to researchers if we capture this information when we know for certain their marrital status? Rather than just have the option of listing the spouse as BLANK (which leaves the issue is flux)? I feel we as indexers and reviewers are not able to tell the whole story.
Answers
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The index is there just to get the researcher to the record and the image. When the researcher pulls up the image on Family Search, he'll be able to see the notation that they're not married.
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It is not the job of indexers or reviewers to tell the whole story. We're not creating a transcription or replacement for the record. We're making a finding aid for it.
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On records, you index what you see at the time of the document. It doesn't matter that on a DEC it shows Joe Smith wasn't married, then on the PET, which, let's say, is five years later, he is married to Barbara. He was unmarried at the time of the DEC, then you index what you see at the time of the PET. They are completely separate documents. It is not our job to infer, assume or speculate anything. If we told "the whole story", it would create an absolute nightmare and projects would take weeks (or longer) to complete. Marking a field blank means that whatever is required in those field(s), it's not there. With OOA's, the only things that are indexed are the petitioner's name and record date. Marking the spouse fields blanks literally means they are not married.
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