Practical Uses for the GENTECH

Genealogical Data Model

Beau Sharbrough, GENTECH President

PO Box 3170

Grapevine TX 76099-3170

Part 1

How We Got Here

Lexicon Working Group

• FGS 1995 - Joint Effort with FGS

• NGS 1996 - Paul Barkley suggests JAD sessions

• FGS 1996 - Data Modeling sessions begin

• FGS 1998 - GDM 1.0 released

• NGS2000 - GDM 1.1 released.

Who is the Working Group?

• Curt Witcher

• Marsha Hoffman Rising

• Birdie Holdsclaw

• Helen FM Leary

• Robert C Anderson

• Bob Velke

• John Wylie

Part 2

What IS it?

Genealogical Data Model

• Request for Comment

• Project by genealogists and developers to describe genealogy processes.

• Describes the relationships between the various kinds of family history information.

• Overview of what genealogists do

• Not a genealogy program.

• Not a database design

• Not a document saying what genealogists SHOULD do.

Every genealogist says that they do research differently.

The GDM describes the process that they do differently.

The GDM is a product of cooperation by:

• GENTECH

• FGS

• NGS

• BCG

• and other sponsoring organizations

Part 3

Practical Uses

Administration

• Planning your projects - research objectives and activities

• Defining surety schemes

• Defining source groups

Administration Example - Look for Jonathan Sharbrough estate

papers at FHL.

I’ve defined a … •RESEARCH OBJECTIVE,• RESEARCH ACTIVITY, •SOURCE GROUP, •RESEARCHER, and •PROJECT

Evidence

• REPOSITORY

• SOURCE

• REPRESENTATION TYPE

• REPRESENTATION

• CITATION

EVIDENCE EXAMPLE - I find Jonathan Sharbrough’s Estate Papers on microfilm at FHL.

I defined a REPOSITORY, a SOURCE, and a

REPRESENTATION.

CONCLUSIONS

• ASSERTIONS about …– PERSONA– EVENTS– CHARACTERISTICS– GROUPS– ASSERTIONS

CONCLUSION EXAMPLE

• ASSERTION: Joseph was Jonathan’s son.

• ASSERTION: Jehu was Jonathan’s son.

CHALLENGE: Describe common research activities in terms of the

entities in the model.

•Census

•Will

•Deed

•Bible

•Funeral Program

Stop Starting with Conclusions

• Don’t start with conclusions, start with evidence.

Sharing your thought process

• Show your work!

GroupWork

• When is it a source and when is it a conclusion?

One man’s conclusion is another man’s source.

• What was your evidence?

• What did you assert?

Data Modeling means better understanding

of genealogy processes.

XML is eXtended Markup Language

• <TITLE>The Title of My Book</TITLE>• <NAME>Jonathan Sharbrough</NAME>• <BIRTHDATE>circa 1734</BIRTHDATE>• <BIRTH PLACE=North Carolina DATE=circa

1734 </BIRTH>

XML is easy to output from genealogy programs

XML is easy to search on web pages

XML means better web searches for genealogy information.

Part 4

What’s Next?

Future number 1

• programs publish pedigrees and registers in XML format

• repositories publish records in the same format

• local links, remote sources

• external authorities

A new culture

• most quoted sites - “authorities”

• many link sites - “hubs”

• links define culture, tribe, families

The digital future of family history is a virtual library where it is ...

• Easy to find the conclusions

• Easy to identify the evidence

• Easy to identify the thought process that links them.

Missing ingredients

• agreement on LexML standard

• wide acceptance of LexML standard

• wide implementation of LexML

Beau Sharbrough

beau@sharbrough.net

www.sharbrough.net