Spouse showing as "Other"

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
geek
Member
Posts: 100
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 6:27 pm
Location: United States

Spouse showing as "Other"

#1

Post by geek »

Problem: Family in the ward, consisting of a temple-married husband and wife, several children. If you bring up the husband's individual record, and click on household members, the wife appears as "Other" (not a spouse).

We wouldn't care about it, except one of the reports that shows single-parent families flags all of the children...

The ward clerk and I are unable to detect any discrepancy in the father's or mother's records, including marriage information.

Thoughts?
mzundel
New Member
Posts: 33
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:08 am

#2

Post by mzundel »

You are not alone. My ward clerk called me up to help him with a similar problem. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember only one of the records was showing the spouse as being "other".

We tried many things to get it corrected. I don't know if this is the correct way to resolve this situation, but this worked:
1. Make a backup of your MLS database
2. Record all marriage information (i.e. date and place)
3. Terminate the marriage as reason unknown
4. Make sure both the mother and the father's records do not contain the spouse as a household member. (On ours, we had to remove the mother from the father's household. After the removal, the mother no longer appeared as "other".)
5. Combine the mother and father again by creating a marriage (re-enter the information you recorded from step 1).

Again, this worked for our situation but I don't know if it will for you.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#3

Post by russellhltn »

Terminating and re-marrying people could have a ripple effect. I think it would be safer to call SLC/area office and get them to fix it. Or, you can send a message though MLS.
Mac-p40
New Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2007 10:50 pm

#4

Post by Mac-p40 »

Hopefully there will be a MLS update that will allow family relationships to be amended on the ward level. Like the topic starter, our data is affected by the aforementioned discrepancy.
User avatar
Skyhawk-p40
New Member
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:56 am
Location: USA

#5

Post by Skyhawk-p40 »

On the household record, have you tried simply removing the wife (and creating a new household), and then moving her back in? It seems to me that by breaking and resetting the link of the records within the household could fix the problem. Just a thought - let me know if that works.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#6

Post by russellhltn »

Skyhawk wrote:On the household record, have you tried simply removing the wife (and creating a new household), and then moving her back in? It seems to me that by breaking and resetting the link of the records within the household could fix the problem.
I tried doing that with the test unit, but it seems I can only add children - There doesn't seem to be a way to add a spouse. This may explain how this whole situation came about - somehow the the couple moved in as individuals and this was the best way of grouping them without going though special procedures.

Unless someone can find something better, I'd suggest using the "special request" feature in MLS and having SLC make the needed changes.
SmithGW
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:42 am

Spouse Showing as "Other"

#7

Post by SmithGW »

There may be a simpler way to add this person as the spouse. Call up the individual record of the head of house on the screen. On the left side, click "Current Spouse". If there is a link on the upper right side of the screen called "Add Spouse to Household," you may use this link to add the spouse listed on the head of household's record as the household spouse. This only works, however, if there is a linkage problem between the head of house and that member's spouse.
russellhltn
Community Administrator
Posts: 34417
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 2:53 pm
Location: U.S.

#8

Post by russellhltn »

smithgw wrote:Call up the individual record of the head of house on the screen. On the left side, click "Current Spouse". If there is a link on the upper right side of the screen called "Add Spouse to Household," you may use this link to add the spouse listed on the head of household's record as the household spouse.
I think that may work. Might need to drop the person as a "Other" first, but that's certainly worth a try.
BruceRenton-p40
New Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:48 am

#9

Post by BruceRenton-p40 »

smithgw wrote:There may be a simpler way to add this person as the spouse. Call up the individual record of the head of house on the screen. On the left side, click "Current Spouse". If there is a link on the upper right side of the screen called "Add Spouse to Household," you may use this link to add the spouse listed on the head of household's record as the household spouse. This only works, however, if there is a linkage problem between the head of house and that member's spouse.
Your suggestion unfortunately does not seem so work for part member families.

MLS does not allow adding a member spouse to the non-member spouse who is listed as the head of the household, and list her as a Spouse, she will only be listed as Other!

It seems that MLS defines the man as the Head of the Household, member or not. There appears to be no flexibility. So the female member cannot be placed as Head of the Household and the non-member assigned as spouse (to perhaps get around this bug).
SmithGW
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 08, 2007 6:42 am

Spouse showing as "Other"

#10

Post by SmithGW »

If the wife is the head of house and she has a nonmember husband listed on her record, clicking the "Add Spouse to Household" link will do two things: list the nonmember husband on the ward lists and automatically make him the head of house in MLS. But I guess it has to be a wife with a nonmember husband listed on her record. Sorry it didn't work in your case.
Locked

Return to “MLS Support, Help, and Feedback”