270042432 Creation of a Register type for Marriage Bonds (Team)

Issue reported by alycymru at 2023-07-23 11:47:12 UTC
Time: 2023-07-23T11:41:21+00:00
Session ID: bfa46697eb3025dd9170a9b74bbd84f9
Problem Page URL: /registers/new?locale=en
Previous Page URL: https://www.freereg.org.uk/churches/5720f4a2f493fdb4410008a7?locale=en
Reported Issue:
permission was given several years ago for us to transcribe marriage bonds (at least for Wales) on FamilySearch (this was done under Pat's watch) and we would like to be able to move forward with this, but we do not have a register type for it. Can this be created?
https://www.freereg.org.uk/uploads/feedback/screenshot/64bd1340f493fd07f34cbc2c/Screenshot_2023-07-23_124352.jpg

[DeniseColbert]

@Vino-S to add new register type

Affects Validation of records, reports etc. Eric thinks it's quite a big change

[stsccfr]

This could be done easily and safely without code changes by transcribing marriage bonds as marriages, and simply putting "This is a marriage bond" in the Notes. Similarly for banns, licence applications, and any other document having to do with marriage. The value for researchers is that the records are all findable via a single search. Creating a new event type is a huge change that would require special CSV fields, code changes throughout the source to handle the new event type, and changes to the website which would need additional event buttons, and online documentation. I don't think it will be confusing for users to see marriage banns or bonds treated as marriages any more than it is confusing to see our existing records that contain only a death date treated as burials, or our existing records that contain only a birth date treated as baptisms. Rather than keep this issue open in the expectation that we will be able to implement it, I propose that we announce to all coordinators (and transcribers) that they can proceed with transcribing marriage banns and bonds and licence apps if they just treat them as marriages but add an appropriate note. We can, if desired, add some special CSV fields, but even that may not be necessary. Thus this issue becomes more of a policy+documentation issue rather than a huge coding project.

[DeniseColbert]

Dale to send info and proposal to FRSC

[stsccfr]

See MyopicVicar #674, #675 for related requests. We could handle this by adding new Register Types, which is much easier than defining new Event Types (the Event Types are BA, BU, MA) but we could just transcribe banns, licences and bonds/allegations using the existing marriage fields. All that needs to be done is to put "This is only a banns record" into the Notes field.

Note: our use of "register types" implies that the content of a register is uniformly the same, but as we know this is not true. The oldest Anglican registers were mixed BA, BU, MA and in the literature are called Great Registers or Composite Registers. We also transcribe these events from churchwardens account books, parish meeting books and any other source we can find, but we use EX (Extract) for most of those. We already have MI for grave stone inscriptions and memorial plaque inscriptions.

Also note that for events that don't have anything to do with baptism or burial or marriage (such as confirmation, bar mitzvah and the like) we really would need a new event type to handle those, and that would be a nightmare to implement.

[Vino-S]

Decision required:
Implement on the Register level as Register Type or implement as usual marriage record with Notes field value Banns

[Vino-S]

@stsccfr to communicate with Coordinators and finalise a solution