Wife is "Other" in MLS Household

One of the ward clerks in my stake has a household where the wife has the status of "Other" instead of "Spouse". I tried playing around with that ward's MLS for a few minutes in hopes of fixing it, but got nowhere. Anyone have any ideas?

jwtaber wrote:One of the ward clerks in my stake has a household where the wife has the status of "Other" instead of "Spouse". I tried playing around with that ward's MLS for a few minutes in hopes of fixing it, but got nowhere. Anyone have any ideas?

The fix for this particular problem is in the wiki under Nonmember spouse.

aebrown wrote:The fix for this particular problem is in the wiki under Nonmember spouse.

The wife in this case is a member. Are you sure this will still work?

jwtaber wrote:The wife in this case is a member. Are you sure this will still work?

Yes. I've done it on both the test data and watched over the shoulder while a ward clerk did it for the exact situation you describe.

The ward clerk tried that and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

Are the detailed facts about the marriage (spouse name, marriage date, marriage place) recorded within the the membershiip detail for both husband and wife? I don't think MLS will let you form a "household" with head and spouse unless that prerequisite is met.

If you drill down in the membership detail, and see that there is missing data, I think the corrective steps would be.

• Temporarily separate the wife into a household of her own as head-of-house.
• Fix the missing detail in whichever member's record needs it. (Detail data might even be missing in both, in which case the clerk needs to get it from a marriage document.)
• Do a send/receive and wait until CHQ updates the master records, then do another send/receive to download the final updates.
• Merge the wife's record back into the husband's household.

jwtaber wrote:The ward clerk tried that and it didn't work. Any other ideas?

Sorry, I assumed that the husband was a nonmember -- that's where I have seen this situation most often. Even though you didn't say he was a member, I suppose that he is, or those steps would have worked.

As RossEvans pointed out, it's essential that the Current Spouse information on each individual record is correct and links the member to the spouse so that the individual records are linked to each other. If that is the case, then adding the wife back to the household will automatically make her the spouse. If the records are not linked properly via the Current Spouse, then adding her to the household will add her as Other.

I’m a 7-yr ward MC and 1-yr Stake MC, but this is my first post to this site. I had been having this problem for about 2 ½ years as well for the 6 (then 5, now 4) part-member couples in our ward where the husband is the NM (the problem doesn’t show where the wife is the NM). I called the Memb Dept a total of about 5 times on it. The 2nd rep in Nov ’08 gave me good instructions on how to fix it, that are much like RossEvans posted here. So thru the years, I’ve gotten used to the glitch reappearing every so often, and having to re-set them; once you get the hang of it, you can save steps by combining operations for all your PM couples, before moving onto the next step. The first 2 or 3 Memb reps couldn’t tell me much as to how widespread this glitch was; but the last two indicated that they have become more aware of the issue, and maybe by now the most recent MLS version has resolved it (I last reset ours at the end of Dec). I’ll check how ours looks next time I’m on our MLS.

Please let me know if you’d like me to send a copy of my more detailed instructions on re-setting multiple PM couple listings.

jhigbee wrote:Please let me know if you’d like me to send a copy of my more detailed instructions on re-setting multiple PM couple listings.

Sounds like something that would be a good addition to the Wiki.

jhigbee wrote:Please let me know if you’d like me to send a copy of my more detailed instructions on re-setting multiple PM couple listings.

How do your instructions differ from what is already on the wiki under Nonmember spouse for dealing with household records with nonmember spouses?

In comparing the two sets of instructions, they are principally the same. The one sent to me by the Memb Dept rep in Nov ’08 is more straight forward as far as having the entire process of removing the nonmember husband, and then re-establishing him in the same set of instructions; together with my annotations of which steps you can do in a block (in order to save time) for multiple erroneously listed PM couples; together with noting you will have to re-establish the preferred names of any of the NM husbands for whom their full names have been shown.

But I checked again on our abbreviated and full ward directories, and found that the four PM couples that I reset back in Dec are still holding true (for the first time in nearly 3 years). So I’m crossing my fingers that the latest update of MLS fixed this glitch, meaning now when a clerk resets them, they should stay good.

A few wives in our ward are considered "Other" in MLS. When I tried to change their status to spouse, per the instructions provided in this post, I noticed that their husbands had different record numbers.

When I view the husband's individual record, he has one record number, but when I view the husband's information in the wife's spouse screen, he has another record number. Furthermore, one of the sister's husband's information on her individual record shows him as a non-member, even though he is indeed a member and has his own individual record as a member (both the husband and wife are converts). Are these things that I need to amend before I change the wife's status to spouse or will MLS automatically make the applicable corrections? If it's the former, how do I amend these discrepancies?

On a related note, one of the sisters, whose husband had two different record numbers, had an add-as-spouse link (I don't recall what the link was actually called) on the top right-hand corner of the spouse page on her individual record. I clicked on said link and a pop-up message appeared that said something to the effect of "do you want to request the spouse's (husband's) record", and below that message there was a "Yes" button and a "No" button. I clicked on "No", thinking it was synonymous with "cancel" in this situation, but when I did, I noticed that her status was consequently changed to "spouse". Since her husband had two record numbers, will what I did cause any future discrepancies or repercussions? If yes, how can I amend what I did?

hilohi wrote:When I view the husband's individual record, he has one record number, but when I view the husband's information in the wife's spouse screen, he has another record number. Furthermore, one of the sister's husband's information on her individual record shows him as a non-member, even though he is indeed a member and has his own individual record as a member (both the husband and wife are converts). Are these things that I need to amend before I change the wife's status to spouse or will MLS automatically make the applicable corrections? If it's the former, how do I amend these discrepancies?

Yes, you need to fix these things. I'd start with reading the instructions for Special request

I have a slight variation to this issue. The wife is a long-time member. The marriage was recorded on the wife's record, but the husband was a NM at the time. Husband was recently baptized, so now the correct membership record shows for the husband under the 'spouse' tab on the wife's record, but the now-member husband shows as unmarried and the wife cannot be added, because well, she's already married. When adding the wife to the husband's HH, she shows as Other. I've tried breaking her out into her own HH, but no success. My best guess is to terminate the marriage and re-enter. Does this sound correct?

forrjoel wrote:Husband was recently baptized, so now the correct membership record shows for the husband under the 'spouse' tab on the wife's record, but the now-member husband shows as unmarried and the wife cannot be added, because well, she's already married.

I think I'd go for the special request. I'm leery about terminating a marriage to try to fix things.

Thank you, russellhltn.

I have two questions that I believe are related to this thread.

1. We have a lot of records that show marriage info for non-member spouses. In the past, we have created non-member records for them and added them to the household. Reading the Wiki, I believe we are doing things wrong, because no one has ever asked most of them if they are okay with having a record created (and most of the member spouses are inactive so no one has talked to them about it either). So the question is, without creating a record, how do you show that a household does indeed have a husband and wife?

2. The next question piggybacks on the first. Some background: Since no one has asked the non-members for permission, we often have incomplete information - usually no birth date. MLS seems to accept leaving that field blank. But periodically the female non-members get separated from their member husbands (never happens to the male non-members). Might be related to the periodic refreshes but it seems like that would separate all non-members, not just the females. I usually go in and delete the records and rebuild. Annoying but I can deal with it. With the recent upgrade to version 3.52, all of the non-member females have had temporary records created (in addition to the non-member records) and have been added to the Relief Society rolls and visiting teaching lists. Relief Society president is not thrilled.

Has anyone else experienced this? Something we are doing wrong when creating the records (besides the permission issue)? Like not having all of the info.

idjeeper2 wrote:So the question is, without creating a record, how do you show that a household does indeed have a husband and wife?

Define "show". MLS does know who is married and who is not. The printed directories from MLS will not show a spouse if a non-member record is not created for them. The on-line directory may or may not show a spouse automatically (and sometimes erroneously.) Perhaps the real problem is people who attempt to read too much into the directory.

idjeeper2 wrote: Something we are doing wrong when creating the records (besides the permission issue)?

I believe there is a function in MLS for creating a non-member record for a spouse. I'd use that function rather then creating the record by hand. It's more likely to stay linked.

russellhltn wrote:

idjeeper2 wrote:So the question is, without creating a record, how do you show that a household does indeed have a husband and wife?

Define "show". MLS does know who is married and who is not. The printed directories from MLS will not show a spouse if a non-member record is not created for them. The on-line directory may or may not show a spouse automatically (and sometimes erroneously.) Perhaps the real problem is people who attempt to read too much into the directory.

idjeeper2 wrote: Something we are doing wrong when creating the records (besides the permission issue)?

I believe there is a function in MLS for creating a non-member record for a spouse. I'd use that function rather then creating the record by hand. It's more likely to stay linked.

Thank you for your reply. It appears I wasn't clear in my description. MLS does automatically create the non-member record when one adds the spouse to the household. That is how we create the records, not by hand (which is also possible).

Our process is to add whatever marriage information we have. Often that is just a name, but sometimes we have the marriage location and date. On rare occasions we have a birth date for the NM spouse. Up to that point, I believe we are within the guidelines. The next step would be to add the spouse to the household. That step creates the non-member record and makes the spouse visible on printed directories and on the Home Teaching Companionship reports. They are not supposed to show up on roles, class lists, etc. Creating that record is where I think we step outside the guidelines, unless we have permission. I know of only two in our ward with permission (both related to the member husband specifically asking if his non-member wife could be assigned visiting teachers).

With the upgrade to MLS 3.5.3, all of those non-member records for females were duplicated as temporary records, and they show up on the Relief Society roles and as unassigned sisters for Visiting Teaching. The male records were unaffected.

So I guess my questions still stand.

Is there a way to stay within the guidelines and have the spouse shown on the standard directories (I know I can do it with custom reports)?

Did anyone else note the assignment of the non-member sisters to the Relief Society and can they (or anyone) suggest a reason why that happened?

idjeeper2 wrote:MLS does automatically create the non-member record when one adds the spouse to the household. That is how we create the records, not by hand (which is also possible).

What steps are you using to add the spouse to the household? It seems to me that you can't unless a record is created either previously or at the same time. Unless you have permission, I would suggest you add the marriage information to the member's individual record. That will record him/her as married in MLS, but won't create a record for the non-member.

And you may already know this, but I'm finding some clerks getting confused between household view and individual record view. They can look very similar. In individual view you see information about individuals and who they are related to. Because someone is listed in a relationship doesn't mean you have that person's records. For example, you see the links to the parents and any children at home or away, living or deceased. In household view you only see people whose records you have.

idjeeper2 wrote:Is there a way to stay within the guidelines and have the spouse shown on the standard directories (I know I can do it with custom reports)?

Get permission. Essentially what you are getting permission for is to have their name appear on these lists that are being circulated. How would you like to have your name appear on the lists of some other faith just because that's where your spouse goes?

I'm adding the spouse to the household as you describe. Add the marriage info to the member's record and then add the spouse to the household, which in turn creates the non-member record. The only step missing in that process is getting permission. So I will repent and follow the policy from now on. That will pretty much solve the other issue as well.

Thanks for the responses.

It could also be that the marriage was never recorded. I have a couple where the spouse is listed as 'Other' and that's because I simply added her to the household with out recording a marriage event. So, in order to fix this I'm assuming that when I process the marriage event (under Membership in MLS), enter the marriage date, etc., it will automatically change the relationship to spouse. I can't be 100% sure until I try it, but maybe that's what's happening here.

jasonfitt wrote:I have a couple where the spouse is listed as 'Other' and that's because I simply added her to the household with out recording a marriage event. So, in order to fix this I'm assuming that when I process the marriage event (under Membership in MLS), enter the marriage date, etc., it will automatically change the relationship to spouse. I can't be 100% sure until I try it, but maybe that's what's happening here.

If it doesn't work, you may have to remove her and re-add her to the household.