Data Fields

type Discipline

• name: The name by which the person is typically known
• wikipedia_url: the URL of the Wikipedia article specific to the person, if any
• jsp_url: the URL of the Joseph Smith Papers biography, if any
• birth_date: the textual representation of the person’s date of birth, if known
• birth_date_md: the Markdown represenation of the person’s date of birth, if known
• death_date: the textual representation of the person’s date of death, if known
• death_date_md: the Markdown representation of the person’s date of death, if known
• sections: the groupings or headings to which this entry belongs, broadest first. For example: [“19th Century”, “The Followers of Isaac Russell”]
• date: the plain text representation of the date on which this disciplinary action took place.
• date_md: the Markdown representation of the date on which this disciplinary action took place.
• for: the formal reasons given for the disciplinary action (if any), e.g. “apostasy”, “teaching false doctrine”, “committing a hijacking”, etc. Either a string or an array of strings.
• alt_for: unofficial reasons for the disciplinary action. Either a string or an array of strings.
• tagline: the plaintext representation of the tagline which attempts to succinctly summarize the person and their contribution
• tagline_md: the Markdown representation of the tagline which attempts to succinctly summarize the person and their contribution
• notes: the plaintext representation of the notes
• notes_md: the Markdown representation of the notes
• office: the priesthood office at time of disciplinary action, if known
• outcome: the outcome of the disciplinary action. The primary options are:
  • excommunicated: also referred to as being “cut off” from the church, or simply no longer being considered a member (not at the member’s request).
  • excommunicated-at-own-request: this primarily occurred before the 1989 handbook revision which permitted resignation, probably triggered by a lawsuit by Norman Hancock. (Excommunication was previously the only route out of church membership.)
  • disfellowshipped: various privileges of membership were suspended but membership was retained.
  • resigned: a member requested to no longer be a member (not by excommunication) while not under immediate threat of church discipline.
  • resigned-in-response-to-discipline: a member resigned while under immediate threat of church discipline. Either a summons was received, or a council was in progress, or disciplinary action had been materially threatened.
  • priesthood-deathorized: the (male) member’s priesthood authority was revoked. This may only have happened to Matthias F. Cowley.
  • no-action: a council was held but no action was taken
  • council-averted: a council was planned and a summons delivered to the member, but was not ultimately held. In this case the “date” represents the date the council had been planned for. These same options can be have a following question mark to indicate uncertainty about the outcome.
• sex: “male” or “female” (we can add other options if we come across them)
• tags: an array of plaintext strings marking distinguishing features of this entry. Examples include sources (“improvement-era”) to help separate particular groups of entries.
• location: the plaintext representation of the location at which the disciplinary action was carried out, if known. This is the location as it’s presently called—even if named differently at the time of the event.
• location_md: the Markdown representation of the location at which the disciplinary action was carried out, if known
• unit: the plaintext representation of the church unit in which the discipline was carried out, if known
• unit_md: the Markdown representation of the church unit in which the discipline was carried out, if known

Derived

• best_date: the text representation of the best estimate for the date on which this disciplinary action took place. If date_txt is “abt. 1888” then this would be “1888”. If date_txt is “abt. 3 Jul 1919” then this would be “3 Jul 1919”.
• best_year: the best estimate of the year
• best_month: the best estimate of the month, if known
• best_day: the best estimate of the day of month, if known
• best_birth_date: the text representation of the best estimate for the date on which the person was born, if known
• best_birth_year: the best estimate of the year the person was born, if known
• best_birth_month: the best estimate of the month the person was born, if known
• best_birth_day: the best estimate of the day of month the person was born, if known
• best_death_date: the text representation of the best estimate for the date on which the person died, if known
• best_death_year: the best estimate of the year the person died, if known
• best_death_month: the best estimate of the month the person died, if known
• best_death_day: the best estimate of the day of month the person died, if known
• country
• adm1
• adm2
• adm3
• adm4
• best_location
• best_country
• best_adm1
• best_adm2
• best_adm3
• best_adm4
• friendly_location: a more natural form of the location

Sporadically Used

• baptism_date: the text representation of the date of the person’s first baptism into the church (since they last were not in the church).
• birth_place: where the person was born. Sometimes we know this, might as well keep track of it.
• rebaptism_date: the text representation of the date of the person’s next baptism after being excommunicated in this action (if applicable)
• recording_url: URL of a recording of the disciplinary council itself

Contemplated

• marital_status: “married”, “single”, “divorced”, “widowed”

• spouse_count: the number of spouses the person had at the time of the disciplinary action, whether legal, plural, or otherwise.