Deceased spouses

Julie Swedberg 2

I'm pulling a large mailing list that includes individuals that have a deceased spouse.  On the Addressee and Salutation, I'm asking to pull from configuration based on the format I want.  However, because I'm pulling from configuration and NOT the individual, it is pulling the deceased spouse in there as well (even though I mark "do not include spouse") on the query and then the export.


What am I missing?  Why would the export include a deceased spouse?  


 

Julie Swedberg 2

Julie Swedberg:

I'm pulling a large mailing list that includes individuals that have a deceased spouse.  On the Addressee and Salutation, I'm asking to pull from configuration based on the format I want.  However, because I'm pulling from configuration and NOT the individual, it is pulling the deceased spouse in there as well (even though I mark "do not include deceased") on the query and then the export.


What am I missing?  Why would the export include a deceased spouse?  


 

 

JoAnn Strommen

The export is pulling your addressee/salutation format. Even if deceased the spouse name is included in any joint salutation formats until you uncheck the spouse box on the relationship. If you want the joint format (which I always use) you'll need to go to those records and uncheck the spouse box. If you have the addressee format set using the smart feature it will drop spouse name and just have one name remaining.

Robert Flynn

A more definitive way is to export the primary addressee and/or primary salutation.  When a constituent is marked as deceased, we normally put the deceased person on the Bio2 tab and put the remaining person on Bio1.  Then adjust the addressee and salutation accordingly.  In addition to the primary addressee and primary salutation, we add:

Addressee

Spouse Addressee

Formal Salutation

Spouse Formal Salutation

Informal Salutation

Spouse Informal Salutation

Nickname Salutation

Spouse Nickname Salutation  as appropriate.

JoAnn Strommen

The box to include/exclude deceased is only applicable to the constituent record. It will not include records of deceased individuals.  It will not edit your addressee formats to remove names.

Julie Swedberg 2

JoAnn Strommen:

The export is pulling your addressee/salutation format. Even if deceased the spouse name is included in any joint salutation formats until you uncheck the spouse box on the relationship. If you want the joint format (which I always use) you'll need to go to those records and uncheck the spouse box. If you have the addressee format set using the smart feature it will drop spouse name and just have one name remaining.

This is what I needed to know!  That makes sense!  THank you!

Elizabeth Johnson

I think my answer would live somewhere between Robert and Joann's responses. Whereas it might work for some organizations, we would never uncheck someone from their deceased spouse unless they remarried. Those spouse relationships are so important to our institution. If they live at two separate addresses (obviously both living) we would uncheck that box and add annotations to their records.


We would make sure we have an addressee/salutation on the record to handle any mailing need*. Robert, I'm not sure what you mean by storing the deceased person on Bio2 - have you reallocated fields for another purpose? This is fine for RE database view however it is not advisable if you are moving to NXT or have NXT. Of course, I could be missing something entirely. My curiosity is piqued. Screenshot?


*By mailing need it has to work that there are only two potential options that would work - for example, if there was no specific solicitation addressee it would default to the primary addressee.


 

 

Karen Stuhlfeier

I unlink them as spouses  - but then add a relationship of deceased spouse. That way seems cleaner to me and you still have the relationship record. Less confusing to employees looking at the record too. 

 

 

 

 

Christine Cooke 2

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I unlink them as spouses  - but then add a relationship of deceased spouse. That way seems cleaner to me and you still have the relationship record. Less confusing to employees looking at the record too. 

 

 

 

 

 

as far as staff looking at the record -- I have a Business Rule pop up that says "unfortunately the spouse is deceased" when someone opens the record.

JoAnn Strommen

Elizabeth, if you need to keep it checked because you need it, do it. Unchecking it just auto formats addressee/salutations. So clean.


We still have a relationship/reciprocal on the record as others have posted. We change it to "former spouse".  For our needs, I can use that one relationship for divorces or deaths. Other details on the record would tell me which if I ever did need to know. Haven't yet.

Melissa S Graves

Yes, please uncheck the spouse button when someone dies. Change their marital status to widowed which should be a clue that they HAD a spouse and it should be found on the relationship record. This removes all possibility of any addressee/salutation ever containing a deceased spouse name.

Jen Claudy

I always like to use an Additional Addr/Sal in the Title Bar, formatted as follows when the spouse (Wendy) is deceased:


Hernandez, Robert C. "Bob" & (Hernandez, Wendy) - 456789


With the deceased's name in parenthesis, it's super easy for everyone to know that this is the Robert who was married to Wendy, just in case their son and grandson are also both named Robert Hernandez.


But to do this, Wendy must still be the Spouse.


I would just run some QC processes to locate any spouse record marked as Deceased that meets any criteria that mean data needs to be fixed.