geneology

[ednark]

I know this isn't the best place to ask this... but...

i have been recently tapped by my family to 'put some computer' into assisting with their geneology research...

anyone attempted to do something html/sql based for geneology data collection and searching...

i also know that there are commercial sites/programs that do all this better than i can. however, i want to look into it on my own and was wondering if anyone else can share their experiences with attempting this.

[dalecosp]

Hmm, interesting idea.

I've actually been thinking of registering "mywife's-family.org" in order to just let the "old timers" record their memories of generations past, and to give the rest of us a place to meet besides once a year at the lake in July. Some of us, being now on the verge of actual adulthood (whenever that starts<?>) are getting more interested in such things.

So, it'd be a forum, maybe a little CMS for "articles," etc.

OTOH, this doesn't exactly sound like what you're talking about....have they given parameters? Actually, you're probably talking to folks who just want "something" and aren't able to give you any params....

If you're actually wanting to store data, you'll need quite a schema. See if any of them can give your their paper charts. Certainly you'd want *at least* this:
column name | data type
------------+----------------------------------
id | integer
first_name | text
last_name | text
dob | date
dod | date
mother | integer (relation to other row, this table)
father | integer (relation to other row, this table)

--------------------------------------------------------

This is probably too simple---most people want to know ~nee and children, with children's birthdates, dates of marriage(s), etc. etc.

There is a PostScript document at ftp.gedcom.org/pub/genealogy/gedcom (ftp://ftp.gedcom.org/pub/genealogy/gedcom) that describes the database schema used for the Gedcom SW. Reading about the web, it seems lots of folks think that adopting this schema for a single-family tree might be overkill, but it might be worth a look. Another possibility might be just using their SW itself, but that may or may not be what you desire. They do have a converter (GED2HTML) that makes direct conversions from their SW to HTML. That's at gendex.com (http://www.gendex.com).

I might also be interested in any other opines on this subject, in case I do ever register "mywife'sfamily.org".....

[ednark]

naw... no gencom for me...
my family wants more some specifics, they want to log stories about people also

as far as i can tell what we should have is really just a name and some dated events, each event has some source that should be quoted... be it aunt edna or or the 1880 us census or a shipping roster from 1930

birth would be a named event
death would be one
marriages would be a list of named events

each event needs a location, a date, a list of others involved, a description, and a source

so how about

* one table of people
- names and parental relations
- links to rows in events table
- existing events: birth, death, marriage

* one table of events
- name
- description
- players
- source

* one table of event players and their roles
- person link - if one exists
- name
- role
- description

* one table of stories/remembrances
- person link
- source
- story


this leaves a lot of vague data in there, but if its in sql it should still be text searchable. this seems pretty descriptive to me, though i can't imagine it pleasing a hard core geneology freak.

also i was thinking you could leave the source property as 'unconfirmed' and you could search for all unconfirmed things on person X, which would give you a checklist of things to find out about a person.

how does this game plan sound?