Ancestry.com recently announced an updated version of “Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Marriage Index, 1888-2017.”

The first thing I thought as I saw the title was

on what date in 2017 does the database stop?

After all, 2017 is not over as this post is being written. The database cannot contain all 2017 marriages.  How recent are the entries? How often will the database be updated? Will the title be changed if the entries extend into 2018?

The title got me to wondering about other databases that include a range of year of records. If a database of marriages for Yourcounty County, Alabama, is from 1845-1890, when in 1845  do the records start? When in 1890 do the records end? I’ll admit that I don’t always check for those details every time I use a database–especially if I find what I’m looking for. The title of this database was a good reminder for when I’m looking for something that could be in one of the “ends” in a range of years.

Of course the information obtained in this index entry for Heye Albers is from an index that was created from the records. My citation to this 1901 marriage should indicate that the Ancestry.com database “Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Marriage Index, 1888-2017” was what was used–not the original records themselves. This database is a derivative work created, according the Ancestry.com, website from:

Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Marriage Records, 1898-2017. Bernalillo County Record’s Office, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

But I should not cite those records themselves because I’ve not used them. I should cite the database published from Ancestry.com. 

Heye is a cousin of my great-grandmother Habben. I’m probably not going to obtain a copy of the original record in this case, because my budget is not unlimited and one has to draw a genealogical expense line somewhere. If he were a closer relative or if I had reason to believe that the marriage record would tell me something that would help me in my search, then I would obtain it.