1. Practical Uses for the GENTECH Genealogical Data Model Beau Sharbrough, GENTECH President PO Box 3170 Grapevine TX 76099-3170

2. Part 1 How We Got Here

3. 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.

4. Who is the Working Group? Curt Witcher Marsha Hoffman Rising Birdie Holdsclaw Helen FM Leary Robert C Anderson Bob Velke John Wylie

5. Part 2 What IS it?

6. 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.

7. Every genealogist says that they do research differently. The GDM describes the process that they do differently.

8. The GDM is a product of cooperation by: GENTECH FGS NGS BCG and other sponsoring organizations

9. Part 3 Practical Uses

10. Administration Planning your projects - research objectives and activities Defining surety schemes Defining source groups

11. Administration Example - Look for Jonathan Sharbrough estate papers at FHL. I’ve defined a … RESEARCH OBJECTIVE, RESEARCH ACTIVITY, SOURCE GROUP, RESEARCHER, and PROJECT

12. Evidence REPOSITORY SOURCE REPRESENTATION TYPE REPRESENTATION CITATION

13. EVIDENCE EXAMPLE - I find Jonathan Sharbrough’s Estate Papers on microfilm at FHL. I defined a REPOSITORY, a SOURCE, and a REPRESENTATION.

14. CONCLUSIONS ASSERTIONS about … –PERSONA –EVENTS –CHARACTERISTICS –GROUPS –ASSERTIONS

15. CONCLUSION EXAMPLE ASSERTION: Joseph was Jonathan’s son. ASSERTION: Jehu was Jonathan’s son.

16. CHALLENGE: Describe common research activities in terms of the entities in the model. Census Will Deed Bible Funeral Program

17. Stop Starting with Conclusions Don’t start with conclusions, start with evidence.

18. Sharing your thought process Show your work!

19. GroupWork When is it a source and when is it a conclusion?

20. One man’s conclusion is another man’s source. What was your evidence? What did you assert?

21. Data Modeling means better understanding of genealogy processes.

22. XML is eXtended Markup Language The Title of My Book Jonathan Sharbrough circa 1734

23. XML is easy to output from genealogy programs

24. XML is easy to search on web pages

25. XML means better web searches for genealogy information.

26. Part 4 What’s Next?

27. Future number 1 programs publish pedigrees and registers in XML format repositories publish records in the same format local links, remote sources external authorities

28. A new culture most quoted sites - “authorities” many link sites - “hubs” links define culture, tribe, families

29. 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.

30. Missing ingredients agreement on LexML standard wide acceptance of LexML standard wide implementation of LexML

31. Beau Sharbrough beau@sharbrough.net www.sharbrough.net