Talk:FamilySearch Indexing:US, County Marriage Records, Project Updates

Help us improve the indexing and arbitration of this project. Click the Edit This Page button to make suggestions. Messages will be removed after careful review by support and any updates will be posted to the Project Updates page.

Many commonly asked questions, such as indexing crossed out information, have already been answered in the Basic indexing instructions.

License cover pages (Minnesota and Tennessee). Sometimes they state: "Recorded on Mo/Day/Yr, Book _______, Page ________. There is no entry on the form for the book - should this page number be indexed? The field help states "Type the page number or certificate number where the record appears." "Basic indexing instructions" says that "If a date is missing for the event you are indexing, determine at least the year of the event, if possible. Records are often listed chronologically by year. If available, check the records just before and just after to determine the year." I asked on Facebook and Elmer said that sometimes arbitrators don't understand how this rule applies to the PA County Marriages and have deleted the year from records indexed. The most confusing thing to me is when there are multiple images for one marriage. It seems silly to me to have a record on familysearch.org for a paper with the couples names and license number, then another image with that same data and a stamp of when it was filed, and then a record of the license with the ages indexed and then another record with the actual marriage date indexed from the image. 4 seperate images with 4 seperate records, but only one shows the ages, and only one shows the marriage date. Would this not be confusing to users? '''Our responsibility as indexers is to link a name to any image we are indexing. It is not up to us to determine which document has merit. A family member would probably want a copy of every document that pertains to their family. The best way to find the document would be through good indexing. '''And how should we apply the rule of coying the date from other images? Just the year or the complete date? '''The event YEAR Field Help is the only one that instructs to go to a previous or next image. Day and Month Field Helps do not'''. Sometimes I think rules stop us from indexing by principle. What if I am on familysearch.org doing research and find an image of a paper with the names of a couple and no date, but the index has the date. I'd be confused why the image does not match the index. Is there no way to link the images for the same marriage packet together? There are so many questions. Project updates take precedence over other directions or guidelines. Support does not determine project instructions. New Question.. See Share Batch 148977798 PA County Marriages. Does the Marriage License certificate number referred to on the Marriage Return certificate get indexed? See: Image 3 &amp; 5 and also images 6 &amp; 8. Image 5 is the marriage return which refers to the certificate number of Image 3. Image 8 is the marriage return which refers to the certificate number of Image 6. Index the certificate number mentioned on the marriage returns? Or not? '''If the certificate number is on the document it is indexed. '''The marriage returns in these examples were originally attached to the marriage license.. but then are detached by the marriage officiator and returned to the County Clerk.

GB.... please check with the marriage team... yoiur replly is not true in most cases on other documents.. The number on the Marriage Return is not the certificate number of the Marriage Return.. It is the Certificate number of the Marriage License that the Return REFERS  to. IN ALL OTHER INDEXING Cases...  a certificate or page number on one document that REFERS to the actual other document.... the number is not used..

Yes, it is easy to just say if a number is on a document just to index it... but that simply is not always the case.. especially when the number refers to the number of another certificate. That is why I would like clarification from the marriage team. I can see the argument for both sides here... but to read the question without taking a look at the example and giving it some thought... does not really address the issue. So, please give the question and shared batch and image numbers to the marriage team for their answer. Thank you.