diff --git a/src/Type.h b/src/Type.h
index 403ccffa89..082e950921 100644
--- a/src/Type.h
+++ b/src/Type.h
@@ -456,6 +456,8 @@ public:
 	// Given an offset, returns the field's name.
 	const char* FieldName(int field) const;
 
+	type_decl_list* Types() { return types; }
+
 	// Given an offset, returns the field's TypeDecl.
 	const TypeDecl* FieldDecl(int field) const;
 	TypeDecl* FieldDecl(int field);
diff --git a/src/Var.cc b/src/Var.cc
index 1211a5315b..d6d4cc10e4 100644
--- a/src/Var.cc
+++ b/src/Var.cc
@@ -242,22 +242,31 @@ void add_type(ID* id, BroType* t, attr_list* attr, int /* is_event */)
 	// t->GetTypeID() is true.
 	if ( generate_documentation )
 		{
-		SerializationFormat* form = new BinarySerializationFormat();
-		form->StartWrite();
-		CloneSerializer ss(form);
-		SerialInfo sinfo(&ss);
-		sinfo.cache = false;
+		if ( t->Tag() == TYPE_RECORD )
+			{
+			// Only "shallow" copy record types because we want to be able
+			// to see additions to the original type's list of fields
+			tnew = new RecordType(t->AsRecordType()->Types());
+			}
+		else
+			{
+			SerializationFormat* form = new BinarySerializationFormat();
+			form->StartWrite();
+			CloneSerializer ss(form);
+			SerialInfo sinfo(&ss);
+			sinfo.cache = false;
 
-		t->Serialize(&sinfo);
-		char* data;
-		uint32 len = form->EndWrite(&data);
-		form->StartRead(data, len);
+			t->Serialize(&sinfo);
+			char* data;
+			uint32 len = form->EndWrite(&data);
+			form->StartRead(data, len);
 
-		UnserialInfo uinfo(&ss);
-		uinfo.cache = false;
-		tnew = t->Unserialize(&uinfo);
+			UnserialInfo uinfo(&ss);
+			uinfo.cache = false;
+			tnew = t->Unserialize(&uinfo);
 
-		delete [] data;
+			delete [] data;
+			}
 
 		tnew->SetTypeID(copy_string(id->Name()));
 		}
diff --git a/testing/btest/doc/autogen-reST-record-add.bro b/testing/btest/doc/autogen-reST-record-add.bro
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5f95a27e8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/doc/autogen-reST-record-add.bro
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# @TEST-EXEC: bro --doc-scripts %INPUT
+
+# When in doc mode, bro will clone declared types (see add_type() in Var.cc)
+# in order to keep track of the identifier name associated with the new type.
+# This test makes sure that the cloning is done in a way that's compatible
+# with adding fields to a record type -- we want to be sure that cloning
+# a record that contains other record fields will correctly see field
+# additions to those contained-records.
+
+type my_record: record {
+    field1: bool;
+    field2: string;
+};
+
+type super_record: record {
+    rec: my_record;
+};
+
+redef record my_record += {
+    field3: count &optional;
+};
+
+global a: my_record;
+
+global b: super_record;
+
+function test_func()
+{
+    a?$field3;
+    b$rec?$field3;
+}