Indexing Spouse Names from Death Records
I am indexing batches of death certificates from Wisconsin, USA and am noticing that there is no field to index the spouse name from the certificate. I think this information should be entered when provided because that is a HUGE plus for people researching to help verify this is the record they are looking for.
Comments
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It could be just a mistake or oversight, but this is unlikely in my opinion. The spouse of the deceased is indexed in most if not all of the other death record indexing projects that I've done.
FS has to agree with the record owner about what information will be indexed. Sometimes companies such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage are also involved.If the images from this project are not going to be released and you have to pay for the image either from a commercial company or from the government, there is a huge incentive (for the record owner) for this information not to be indexed so that genealogists have to pay for the image.
FS never discusses these issues with users. The best way to find out may be to contact whichever government office owns the records. Reclaim the Records is an organisation that may be able to help if the government is being unreasonable.
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It could be just a mistake or oversight, but this is unlikely in my opinion. The spouse of the deceased is indexed in most if not all of the other death record indexing projects that I've done.
FS has to agree with the record owner about what information will be indexed. Sometimes companies such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage are also involved.If the images from this project are not going to be released and you have to pay for the image either from a commercial company or from the government, there is a huge incentive (for the record owner) for this information not to be indexed so that genealogists have to pay for the image.
FS never discusses these issues with users. The best way to find out may be to contact whichever government office owns the records. Reclaim the Records is an organisation that may be able to help if the government is being unreasonable.
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