Question

Is "End of Marriage" meant to be used for divorce or does being widowed also count as the end of a marriage?

Comments

maybe this previous question and answers help:
https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/114413/what-is-the-proper-use-of-marriage-end-date-on-wikitree

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I am now entering marriage end dates for divorces and deaths. After all, marriage in most (all?) cultures ends on death of one of the parties. I think  it is easier to identify and contextualize  subsequent   marriages when marriage end dates appear in the bibliographic section. Also I think it is interesting to see the length of any marriages and the interval(s) between marriages.

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Karin, just a quick comment.  I use the End of Marriage Field for death, divorce, etc. I find it useful to have it visible when I am researching census records. As an example, it was common for a parent to go live in one of the children's households after a spouse passed away. Using the field just helps me keep my thoughts in focus for the family I am working on.

Answer 1

Yes. I used to use this only in the case where the surviving spouse remarried. Now I think it is useful to see how long a person was widowed.

It is optional.

Answer 2

There is no policy or consensus on the issue. From my experience, I don't think most WikiTreers use end of marriage in the case of the death of the spouse, but some do. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.

Answer 3

Wouldn't you just look at the spouse's death?

Comments

Spouse's death only shows on spouse's profile.  You'd need to mouseover (if you have preview set to on), or click away from whatever you're doing, in order to check.

Answer 4

I set the marriage end date as the spouse's death where I am reasonably sure the couple didn't end their marriage earlier than the death. It's a useful visual reminder for anyone doing further research (including me a few months later) that the partner shouldn't be in the picture after that date in census docs, children born a couple of years later shouldn't have the deceased husband linked, etc.

Answer 5

Hello Karin,

as you can see, it is handled differently. Normally I don't use End of Marriage. Many people consider themselves still as the spouse of their deceased Spouse. But I note the widowship in the biography.

Maybe I would use the field for divorcing.

The field can be useful to differenciate serial marriages and parallel mariages …