Which date to enter?

BJGW

In indexing documents on which there's a date but then an official stamp with a later date, which date do I enter? The convention is to enter the most recent date on the document itself but, for example, certificates of arrival have a date of arrival, a date on which the certificate was issued and a stamped filing date. Which is correct to use, the issuance date or the filing date?

I submitted this question a while back but got no response. If no one's able to address it this time, I'll check with FS. Thank you.

ScottSeegmiller

Usually each project you index has specific instructions on how to index that project.

https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/where-do-i-find-the-project-instructions-while-indexing

You may find you answer in the instructions. If there is nothing specific about the stamped date, you can use the general date instructions for all indexing projects.

• When multiple birth dates appear, enter the earliest date.

• When multiple dates for other events appear, enter the most recent or latest date.

• For events, excluding birth, that include a date range, such as “between February 2 and March 9, 1937,” enter the latest or latest date in the range. In this example, enter the month as  Mar , the day as  9 , and the year as  1937 .
  

Day

• Enter the day with a one or two digit number.
• Do not include zeros written at the beginning of a number. For example, enter “03” as  3 .
  

Month

• Enter the first three letters of the month:  Jan ,  Feb ,  Mar , etc.
  

Year

• Write a four-digit number for the year.

• If only a two-digit number was recorded, you can sometimes calculate the first two digits of the four-digit year from other data, such as project dates or other contextual information about the image. If you cannot determine all four digits of the year, index the two-digit number.

erutherford

If you have a document date of 12/1/1934, and a file date of 2/11/1942, you will enter the first date. The document date on a COA is the arrival date.
If you only have a file date of 11/7/1941, you will enter that date.

maryellenstevensbarnes1

There's an example of the COA under "What to index" in the project instructions for US Naturalizations which shows the date to be entered is the "issued date."

maryellenstevensbarnes1

Sorry everyone, the example of a COA is no longer in the PI