Re: [Gramps-devel] evidence/conclusion-model, and `source oriented' data entry

[Don A. <dal...@us...>]

I like both of these concepts. The first one, in particular, maps to the
original concept of GRAMPS being an analysis system, not just a
database. I like the idea of being able to link two or more people
together as potentially the same person, and treat them as a single
person without doing a full merge. I also like the idea of being able to
break the person back into the original parts if you discover that you
made a mistake.

I would need to think on how to make this fit nicely into the current
database. Right now we have a Person object and a Family object. Somehow
a Person object would need to be able to consist of multiple Person
objects.

I'm not clear on the second one. Are we really talking about "Events"
and not "Sources"? A christening is an event, and I can see multiple
people linked to the same event. Is this what is meant?

Don

On Sat, 2002-06-22 at 04:47, Bj=F8rn-Helge Mevik wrote:
> Hi!
>=20
> I posed a question about the following on the `open discussion' forum
> on sourceforge, and was encouraged to present them here.
>=20
> 1) Does or will gramps support an `evidence/conclusion'-model for
>    genealogical research?  By an evidence/conclusion-model I mean the
>    ability to clearly distinguish between the _facts_ (from sources) I
>    enter (i.e., the evidence) and the _conclusion_ I draw from the
>    facts.
>=20
>    For instance, in one church book record it says that a person
>    _Anders Foer_, son of Hans Andersen and Malena Christensdatter, was
>    christened November 22 1778.  In another record, it says that a man
>    _Anders Hansen Nerfore_ married a woman Martha Hansdatter on
>    September 25 1804.  These are pieces of _evidence_.  Are `Anders
>    Foer' and `Anders Hansen Nerfore' the same person?  Based on other
>    information in these (and other) sources, I believe they are.  This
>    is my _conclusion_.
>=20
>    After having drawn the conclusion that two or more persons
>    referenced in sources, are the same, I want to treat them as one
>    person for `all practical purposes' when using the data base.
>=20
>    But if I simply store the informations as events (christening and
>    marriage) on a person (with alternative names), I lose the
>    information that this is based on a conclusion.  If I later on find
>    contradicting evidence, I have no way to backtrace my reasoning and
>    correct the error.  Similarly, it makes it very hard for other
>    people to trust my data, because they can't see what is evidence
>    and what is my conlusions.
>=20
> 2) Does or will gramps support a `source oriented' way of entering
>    data?  This can be somewhat related to the above, but it doesn't
>    have to.  By source oriented, I simply mean that when I enter the
>    information from a source excerpt, I don't want to have to manually
>    spread that information to a lot of persons.
>=20
>    For instance, in the christening record above, it also says that
>    Mons Jelstad, Bi=F8rn Walnum Wigdell, Hans Christophersen F=F8lvigen
>    and Sara Iversdatter Foer were godfathers and godmothers for
>    Anders.  So the record contains information about the name and
>    residence of seven people.  It's tiresome, at best, to have to
>    manuall update (and often create) all those person records.
>=20
>    Even further, I would like to be able to extract or collect the
>    information from a source excerpt later on.  (This becomes very
>    useful and important with an evidence/conclusion-model.)
>=20
> I am searching for a genealogy program that have these features (or at
> least plans to have them), and I would be willing to put some work in
> it.  I realise that it might not be easy to implement these features,
> but I think they would bring the development of genealogical software a
> great step forward.  I'm very interested in finding and developing new
> ways that a computer can _help_ me in my research.  Today, most
> genealogical software is not much more than a specialised data base
> application.
>=20
--=20
Don Allingham
dal...@us...
http://gramps.sourceforge.net