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4 What's going on

4.6 Lineage linked data

Earlier you saw how a genealogical database records relationships between people. A lineage linked database allows queries such as ‘Ada Rosewell the daughter of John Rosewell’ and makes possible the creation of family pedigrees and other charts. For example, the pedigree chart below shows how Alcimenes was the son of Jason (the Argonaut) and Medea and the grandson of Aeson and Alcimedes.

Part of the family tree of Jason the Argonaut (from Graves, R. (1944) The Golden Fleece)

There is a widely used standard format (GEDCOM) for data files that describes genealogical trees such as this. GEDCOM format files can be exported and imported into all genealogical packages and make it easy to exchange genealogical information. You can see the GEDCOM encoding for the family tree by clicking on 'View document' below.

View document

Activity 31

Using the above file structure, spend a few minutes identifying the features below.

Now read the discussion

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