Marriages for part-member families

As we have worked on our membership audits this year, the question came up about some members who are married and we know the spouses name. We may even know the date they were married. The part members families are not active and asking if we could record their marriage may not draw the family closer to the church. However, it would be good for future bishops to know the spouses name and that the member is married. Should we and are we required to gain the permission of the family to record the marriage? Is the date required to record that a member is married?

I don't believe the permission is required to record the marriage, only to create a non-member record for the spouse.

I don't remember what fields are required to record the marriage, but they are color coded in MLS.

The proper thing to do is record their marriage after all they are married. It also ensures that the member don't end up on the single adult or single young adult reports.

rdent wrote:Is the date required to record that a member is married?

I believe it is, and this is the biggest problem I have as a clerk keeping the Young Single Adult list as accurate as possible. Multiple times I have received a report of a visit and "oh, by they way, they're married" but no info as to the date.

If my test install of MLS is accurate, the only thing required is the spouse's first or last name. I do remember a time when more was required, but I have no idea when it changed.

mfmohlma wrote:

rdent wrote:Is the date required to record that a member is married?

I believe it is, and this is the biggest problem I have as a clerk keeping the Young Single Adult list as accurate as possible. Multiple times I have received a report of a visit and "oh, by they way, they're married" but no info as to the date.

I double-checked and it appears that you not only need a marriage date, but the birthdate of a spouse to keep MLS from classifying a person as a "Single". The leader website appears to do a better job at this.

mfmohlma wrote:I double-checked and it appears that you not only need a marriage date, but the birthdate of a spouse to keep MLS from classifying a person as a "Single".

Ugh. I was never comfortable about asking that question. Can you detail your test? Did MLS accept the marriage but some of the printouts that gave wrong impressions? Or is the birth date colored indicating that it's mandatory?