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Archiver > TMG > 2008-08 > 1218688316


From: Ida Skarson McCormick <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Tag for People Living Together
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:31:56 -0700
References: <20080813.200719.1484.4.dean.scribner@juno.com>
In-Reply-To: <20080813.200719.1484.4.dean.scribner@juno.com>


Perhaps I should rephrase it. <g> An unmarried couple can live
together as if husband and wife for 50 years in the State of
Washington, and it will not be recognized as a marriage by the
state. The only exception is if the couple's relationship was
recognized by a previous state of residence as a marriage before
moving to Washington. Washington is also a community property
state. It could be quite a mess if one of the parties had failed to
divorce a spouse before entering the long-term living-together
arrangement (LTA) and subsequently died after many years of living together.

It is better for genealogists to use such tags as Liaison or LTA in
the Marriage Group for such relationships, particularly if children
are born to them. Liaison is vague enough to apply to most
situations and does not require a sentence, just a memo field in
angle brackets and a sort date, or a sentence can be suppressed. If
there are no children, the tag could go in the Other Group. Nothing
prevents us from having various event tags to fit different
situations, like Affidavit (of paternity), DNA Test (of paternity).

Fortunately, TMG does not link children to a parental marriage event,
like some "lineage-linked" software. TMG links a child to each
parent individually, married or not, no matter how many types of
parents a social situation may require. Thus TMG does not create
false marriages.

--Ida Skarson McCormick, , Seattle

At 08:03 PM 8/13/2008, Dean Scribner <> wrote:
>There is not now, nor has there ever been, such a thing as a "common law
>marriage". Relationships have been declared to be, or not to be,
>marriages, under Common Law, and then only when challenged in a court of
>law. <snip>

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