How to mark ambiguous gender

[riwebb]

Here's an interesting one I just happened upon. Looking at the 1860 US Census (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8TC-836) I find that a distant relative, labeled here as E Zarecor, was "counted as a male" but gender was "martin" which I assume to be a variant of freemartin. (You can click the link above and read line 12 to come to your own conclusions.) But this brings up a question I had not faced in the past: how do you list the gender for a gender-ambiguous relative? I could put it down as "unknown", because the gender was truly unknown. Or I could put it down as male because the child was named Edwin and counted as a male. Neither is perfectly accurate (as I have noted in a comment).

But an even more confusing situation is facing me. I have a near relative who "gave up being a lesbian" when she fell in love with and married a man who was considering gender reassignment. He has subsequently had gender reassignment surgery. How would this best be denoted with the gender flag in Reunion?

Not looking to stir up controversy, but trying to determine the best practice to deal with an odd situation or two here. I would appreciate any constructive ideas.

Richard

[B Jansen]

Re: How to mark ambiguous gender

Hi Richard,

I think on the first it's a subject call. Pick one approach and explain it.

For the second, I think the standard is to record someone as they were born then appropriately note changes.