hello, why do Rootsmagic not automaticly add a marriage event, when you ad a spouse ? because you can then at once when this person open add the date and place..
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It’s primarily because a couple can be a couple in RM, even if they were not married.
In a more technical vein, I do not like to add a fact to RM unless I have evidence that I can cite as a source for that fact. I often know that two people were a couple before I have evidence for their marriage. A couple of simple examples are that marriage certificates and death certificates often list the parents if the principals. But knowing that two people were parents together does not necessarily mean that they were married.
One issue that gives me heartburn is that often the only evidence I have for a couple is the man’s will that lists his children and “his beloved wife Rebecca” (or whatever her name was). But this is so far back in time that there is no extant record of the marriage nor of the putative wife’s maiden name.
There are all kinds of problems here. I can enter a marriage for the man and his wife Rebecca with an estimated date and place, citing the man’s will as the only source. But it’s only a guess. For example, on the American frontier where many of my ancestors lived, there was a shortage of ministers, and governments that could issue marriage licenses were not yet well established. So couples sometimes set up shop as husband and wife without benefit of an actual marriage. For another example, this Rebecca might actually have been married to the man, but she might have been his second or third wife and was not actually the mother of his children. The mother of the children might well have died young. So as I said, there is more guesswork here than we might have in modern times.
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It does make sense for couples that you know the date of marriage (ie: yourself, parents, grandparents) but as theJerryBryan states, sometimes that info isn’t known.
When looking at census for a family, I put in a “guess” as to when they were married based on first born child. I do this so I can narrow down my search for marriage info.
I agree that there should be a preference setting in RM that would, when set, ask the user whether to add a Fact be used to document the new linkage (either child-Parent or “spousal”).
I would prefer to automatically add a more neutral Fact, such as “Partners”, or “Parents” (if a child exists). I agree that automatically adding a Marriage fact is a bit misleading as marriage is a cultural institution, not a biological one.
The point is every family relationship needs a fact where one can attach citations.
The original post header talks about “marriage date”. I assume that was a mistake)
Sorry @RichardOtter BUT @jan definitely means marriage date-- back in RM 7, every time you added a couple, this box showed up-- no matter how you added the spouse..
This only shows up in RM 8 to RM 10, one way–
If you are in family view and right click on the person, pick ADD PARENTS in the drop down menu-- the box will appear-- other than that I haven’t found any other way it shows up-- note–you can do it in pedigree and descendant view BUT definitely don’t use pedigree as you will end up with the couple married to each other multiple times-- descendant view would work also BUT don’t know if you will end up with multiple marriages
your idea of a neutral fact is interesting–maybe have never married as an option
I have created a Never Married fact, which I only use if the individual is noted on their death registration as a bachelor (or a spinster). I decided to do this because I’m a one-namer, so it helps to know that I don’t have to search for descendants of these people (specifically the bachelors!) . It’s not fool-proof, of course, because it depends on the death informant knowing whether the deceased was ever married. But it helps
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That’s a good idea. I might borrow it. 
I have a color code for “end of line” where I mark people with no descendants or those that I have chosen not to pursue going forward. For example, my husband was adopted by his step-father but has no interest in knowing more about that person’s family. Marking his adoptive dad as “end of line” tells me that I don’t need to spend time chasing hints on the people on that line or adding his family members.
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@ftipple Understand what you are saying abt a Never Married Fact as I also have one that I use–also understand why you use it if the individual is noted on their death registration as a bachelor (or a spinster)-- as you say it’s NOT fool proof BUT just because they were never married ( or never married BEFORE they married into your family) doesn’t mean they don’t have any descendants..
Some think that before the late 1960s ( free love etc) that there weren’t that many out of wedlock kids born BUT I have found just the opposite going back to the early 1700s-- note–if you had any ancestors in the area that would become W VA as early as the 1840s, you almost definitely have at least one kid born out of wedlock-- many times the woman’s 1st hubby was listed as the father on the death certificate etc BUT the father died 3 years before the kid was born-- off the top of my head, my hubby has a 3rd g-Aunt who had a baby abt 1842-- she refused to name the father even when dragged into court-- another 2nd or 3rd cousin who had a baby abt 1890–she refused to name the father and she died in child birth- and an uncle who had a kid that I’m not even sure he ever knew abt–as for me, my 5th g -grandma was a widow when she married my 5th g-grandfather but the jury is still out on whether the child she had before marrying him was a descendant of her 1st hubby or future hubby or someone ese…
I use my never married fact when I have a child born out of wedlock after exhausting all sources for marriages / birth/ baptism / census etc-- census being the weakest of sources as the child may have lived with the grandparents or another relative instead of the mother or father…
I take your point, and of course I know that many children were born out of wedlock and that if the mother was unmarried, the children were normally known by her surname. However, with a one-name study it’s actually the surname that is being studied, so research tends to be confined to bearers of the surname. So for instance, I follow (or try to!) all female bearers of my study name, cradle to grave, but don’t follow any of their legitimate (sic!) children, except in so far as they appear in records with their mother (e.g. census returns). I do follow the illegitimate children (and their descendants) if they continue to use the mother’s name throughout their lives.
When I’m researching my own family none of this applies, of course, because I want to know everything I can find and prove.
RM will add a marriage fact after adding a spouse depending on how you added it. Add the marriage fact to the person and then select add new spouse. Either add them as a new person or select an existing person in the database. After adding the spouse it will return to the person with the marriage fact highlighted so you can fill it in.