New convert baptism of spouse complains about existing marriage

[jgoggan]

Had a weird situation today. We have a member (named "M") who was baptized over a year ago. His spouse ("F") was recorded as a non-member spouse in his record. Recently, the wife was baptized -- great! The missionaries initiated the new record and I was informed that it needed to be completed, as usual. When I went through the process, it got to the part about their spouse and the missionaries had already properly selected that M was their spouse as an existing member in the unit. But when I tried to submit F's new record, it complained that it couldn't be done because M already had a marriage recorded that had to be taken care of first. In other words, it was seeing their own marriage (under M's account already as a non-member spouse) as an existing marriage for M that was different from the marriage to F who was just baptized.

I looked and discovered that the marriage dates were different -- their marriage was 2020, but M's original record had a typo of 2022. I figured that was the issue -- because it couldn't line them up as the same marriage, of course. So, I went into M's record and changed the recorded marriage date for his non-member spouse as 2020. Then I went back to the new record system and tried to resubmit -- but it continued to complain about the existing marriage. I tried to edit it, close it and re-open, and so on -- to force it to "check again", but no matter what I did, it continued to complain that the marriage on M's account needed to be resolved before I could add F's new record.

In the end, I went into M's record itself, went to the Family tab, and used the "Create Membership Record for Spouse" button to create the new record -- and then just copied all of the missionary-supplied data into that new record creation. That went through fine -- so then I just deleted the Missionary's new record request and marked it as "already exists."

Hopefully that makes sense as a solution. But I wanted to mention it here to make sure I wasn't missing something else I should have done differently?

Thanks!

[jgoggan]

Oh -- one last thing that I couldn't re-create... When the missionaries submit a New Member Form, there is a spot for "previous spouse" if the person has been married before. But when you add a record for a new baptism from the non-member spouse section in LCR, there is no spot to add that previous spouse (either at record creation or after the fact) from what I can find.

Is there a way to enter a previous marriage? Or should I just not worry about it?

[garystroble]

Oh -- one last thing that I couldn't re-create... When the missionaries submit a New Member Form, there is a spot for "previous spouse" if the person has been married before. But when you add a record for a new baptism from the non-member spouse section in LCR, there is no spot to add that previous spouse (either at record creation or after the fact) from what I can find.

Is there a way to enter a previous marriage? Or should I just not worry about it?

Don't worry about the previous spouse information. If the missionaries entered it then it will be recorded at headquarters, but you won't be able to see it anyway.

As far as the convert baptism of the current spouse, suggest you check with the Global Service Center to see if you did this correctly. With the new way to record convert baptisms by the missionaries and then the clerk, it's possible that the data of the convert which the mission office keeps tabs on got smashed. In the past, I recall having to contact the GSC when a non-member spouse was baptized for the computer records to get synced, and that was before the current convert recording system.

[jgoggan]

Don't worry about the previous spouse information. If the missionaries entered it then it will be recorded at headquarters, but you won't be able to see it anyway.

I'm not sure that is correct. Remember, I DELETED the submission from the Missionaries. I don't see that it will ever be tied to the actual convert baptism that was created. (Note that the temporary creation request from the missionaries had a different member ID than the one that the convert actually ended up with what I added it myself.)

As far as the convert baptism of the current spouse, suggest you check with the Global Service Center to see if you did this correctly. With the new way to record convert baptisms by the missionaries and then the clerk, it's possible that the data of the convert which the mission office keeps tabs on got smashed. In the past, I recall having to contact the GSC when a non-member spouse was baptized for the computer records to get synced, and that was before the current convert recording system.

Agreed. I'll give them a call just to confirm things. Thanks.

[garystroble]

Good point on the prior marriage. Be sure to mention that to headquarters when you call them. They may have to merge the two memberships as well.

[hlongmore]

I’m dealing with basically the same situation today. The dates matched; I think the system just doesn’t try to compare, as two people could have the same name, and other than the membership record number, we don’t have an ID number that could disambiguate. After reading the above about the data submitted by the missionaries needing to be tied to the record, I think I’m going to delete the marriage that I recorded last month. I’m using “Change Marriage Status”, with “Unknown” as the reason, since the others don’t apply. That seems to have done the trick.

[russellhltn]

I think I’m going to delete the marriage that I recorded last month.

I wouldn't do that. While you may not see it, the system keeps track of changes and your likely adding a false divorce. I'd contact the membership team at GSD.

[hlongmore]

I think I’m going to delete the marriage that I recorded last month.

I wouldn't do that. While you may not see it, the system keeps track of changes and your likely adding a false divorce. I'd contact the membership team at GSD.

Too late, I had already done it by the time I posted. I’m not too worried about it creating a false divorce, as the other options were “Death of Spouse”, “Divorce”, and “Annulment”. I’ve logged a case, as there really ought to be a merge tool for this situation. I’m sure it happens fairly regularly for part member families.

[russellhltn]

If you keep bugging support to fix this every time it happens, then it's more likely to become a priority.

[hlongmore]

Here's the response I got back from GSD, for anyone who comes across this post in the future and wants to know what to do (until they give us a merge tool):

If a person who is already married is recorded as a non-member spouse and you are creating a new member record following their baptism, please follow these steps:

1. Record Marriage Status as “Not Married”: During the initial creation of the new member record, record the marriage status as “Not Married.” This ensures that there are no conflicts or inaccuracies during the record-creation process.
2. Contact Us for Merging Records: After the new member record is created with the baptism information, please contact us. We will assist in merging the non-member record with the new member record and update the marriage information correctly.
3. Update Marriage Details: We will handle updating the marriage information to accurately reflect the marriage details under the correct membership record number during the merging process.