Tom Wetmore wrote: > I concur with Cheryl. Basically all genealogical applications allow their > records to contain links to external items, either files on the local file > system or to URL on the world wide web. > > That doesn't solve the problem of where to store those links. As Cheryl > points out, if you put a link in a person record, you are making the > explicit statement that the linked-to evidence refers to that person. > > The question I am trying to get to in this thread, is how are you going > to handle that evidence, a link to an external something or other in > this case, when you don't yet know what person should link to it? If I were starting from scratch it would go in a blob. The whole workflow should be evidence > analysis > reconstruction. You aren't going to have it linked to your reconstruction until you've got to the end of that process. In essence the database would be arranged as follows: Evidence: Those blobs Hierarchy of source information providing a provenance and indicating where the material is currently located Analysis: Events Personae (preserving names as originally written) Roles linking Personae to Events Locations linked to events (also preserving names as originally written) Reconstruction: People (providing a standard spelling plus some de-ambiguation as needed, e.g. John Smith 3rd) Links to Personae Relationships - families, political, military, etc Places (providing a standard spelling but also put in heirarchies, civil, ecclesiastical, etc, date-bounded where appropriate) Links to Locations -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk

On Tuesday, May 24, 2011 5:27:03 PM UTC-4, Ian Goddard wrote: > Tom Wetmore wrote: > > I concur with Cheryl. Basically all genealogical applications allow their > > records to contain links to external items, either files on the local file > > system or to URL on the world wide web. > > > > That doesn't solve the problem of where to store those links. As Cheryl > > points out, if you put a link in a person record, you are making the > > explicit statement that the linked-to evidence refers to that person. > > > > The question I am trying to get to in this thread, is how are you going > > to handle that evidence, a link to an external something or other in > > this case, when you don't yet know what person should link to it? > > If I were starting from scratch it would go in a blob. The whole > workflow should be evidence > analysis > reconstruction. You aren't > going to have it linked to your reconstruction until you've got to the > end of that process. > > In essence the database would be arranged as follows: > > Evidence: > Those blobs > Hierarchy of source information providing a provenance and indicating > where the material is currently located > > Analysis: > Events > Personae (preserving names as originally written) > Roles linking Personae to Events > Locations linked to events (also preserving names as originally written) > > Reconstruction: > People (providing a standard spelling plus some de-ambiguation as > needed, e.g. John Smith 3rd) > Links to Personae > Relationships - families, political, military, etc > Places (providing a standard spelling but also put in heirarchies, > civil, ecclesiastical, etc, date-bounded where appropriate) > Links to Locations > > -- > Ian Ian, Bingo. You've just described the ideal model. Tom