Concerning batch M3HV-923

SullivanJanice1

In the middle of the declaration of intention documents (images 1, 3, and 4) there are fields for information about the wife of the applicant. Is the word "wife" in this instance enough to justify declaring the applicant a male? There is no other indication of the sex of the applicant.

Mirevo

No, we would not use information about someone other than the petitioner to assume information about the petitioner. We would only index the gender of the petitioner if there was a designation of the sex or an indication from other terms relating specifically to the petitioner with their name (such as Mr or Mrs). 

• Please refer to the What to Remember about This Project, 2nd and 3rd bullet points. This describes that the completed index and links to digital images will be freely accessible online to the general public when the collection is published. The index is provided to direct patrons to the image, where they can view all additional information on the image as part of their genealogical research. Thank you for consulting us.

Melissa S Himes

Yes. Based on the timing of these records, you can use Male when the applicant has a wife. When they are not married, I would mark the field <blank>.

The field help allows for relationship terms and other evidence in the the language to make this decision:

Index the sex only if it was specifically recorded or you can tell what it was from relationship terms, such as "son" or "daughter," titles or terms, or other evidence in the language.

Melissa S Himes

I humbly disagree with whomever is in your internal department. Is this Indexing Operations or a support department?

Using the term wife to indicate the petitioner is a husband, or vice versa, has previously been acceptable as "other evidence in the language" based on the timing of records. Has this changed?

For example, if the deceased was listed as the husband of, Vivian May Stiles, then the deceased was listed a Male. (reference: Indexing Obituaries PDF, pg 18) and a quote from a webinar in 2014 where one was questioning whether to use the husband and wife relationship to determine gender:

"What we have said is for most of our documents, the timing and tradition we would go ahead and say that most of those couple relationships are husband and wife. But if context shows you that maybe it is a less traditional relationship, then you have to use the context clues of the document and if you really feel uncomfortable choosing a gender, then spouse is the best way to go."

I know that all projects are different, but the field help that states relationship terms or other evidence in the language can be used to determine gender is not.