A colleague of mine who's written about genealogy quite a bit suggested
that people might want to check out the GEDCOM-L list which discusses among
other things genealogical data
models from a technologically fairly sophisticated standpoint.
(http://www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_software.html#GEDCOM-L)
He also cautioned though that "genealogists are not really interested in
family structure as such, but in genetic relationships - the real problem
for genealogists is going to be the complex forms of biological parenthood
resulting from medical technology rather than the variety of historical
family structures of the past."
That's not to gainsay that their ways of modelling relationship structures
can't be appropriated by others with different research questions.
Duncan
===================================================
Duncan Branley [log in to unmask]
Applications Officer, Information Services
Goldsmiths' College, University of London
New Cross, LONDON SE14 6NW
Tel: +44 (0)20 7919 7708 Fax: +44 (0)20 7919 7556
===================================================
|