MLR-07 · MILITARY LIFE RECORD
Family & Dependents
MLR-07: Marriage, children, dependents, relocation, healthcare eligibility, special-needs programs, family-care plans, and beneficiary designations.
Controlling research question
Which relationship or dependency fact controlled the benefit, record, or family consequence at the relevant time?
Core records to preserve
Civil relationship records; DEERS/dependency records; EFMP records; family-care plans; healthcare enrollment; beneficiary elections.
Chronology and evidence testing
- Record the event date separately from the date a document was created.
- Identify the person, component, unit, duty status, location, and issuing office where they matter.
- Separate a record’s express statement from inference, family recollection, or a later summary.
- Preserve conflicts rather than silently harmonizing them; record negative searches by repository, query, dates, and coverage.
Key evidence pathways
Related navigation guides
Authority and effective-date discipline
This Life Record chapter organizes chronology and evidence. It does not by itself state current eligibility, entitlement, deadline, or legal effect. For a rule-dependent question, identify the governing statute, regulation, departmental instruction, program guidance, or decision effective on the relevant date and use the linked Navigation Guide for the current pathway.
Preservation standard
Keep the best available source copy unchanged. Store edited, OCR, transcription, annotation, or working versions separately. Record creator, date/covered period, repository, exact locator, provenance, proposition supported, express limitations, and derivative lineage.
