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MARR.TYPE - "Common-law" #27

Closed fisharebest closed 3 years ago

fisharebest commented 3 years ago

The specification gives this example of MARR.TYPE

0 @I1@ INDI
1 MARR
2 TYPE Common Law

This is clarified by the text

This classifies the entry as a common law marriage but the event is still a marriage event.

Elsewhere, it defines MARR as

A legal, common-law, or customary event that creates a family unit of a man and a woman as husband and wife.

Now, according to wikipedia, a common-law marriage is one "not formally recorded with a state or religious registry, nor celebrated in a formal civil or religious service".

Therefore a common-law marriage is NOT an event. It does not occur on a date. The specifcation says "events are things that happen on a specific date."

Also, it is not a marriage. It is specifically the state of being not-married (but living as if you are).

I think this is a poor example and should be removed. Better examples might be "Civil marriage", "Religious marriage", "Registered partnership", etc.

tychonievich commented 3 years ago

This text is quoted verbatim from the 5.5.1 spec, page 49, itself an expansion of the 5.5 spec page 43. But I agree that it is confusing and should probably be changed.

tychonievich commented 3 years ago

Discusses 2021-08-11 We identified that common-law marriages are legally recognized as marriages with dates (making them events) in some jurisdictions, but we also agreed that this is a confusing example and probably worth changing.