Monday, March 09, 2009

Conceptual Overview of Genealogical Research





Hugh W said...

You are making simple things complicated - basically genealogy is about making lists

and new lists from lists, and lists of lists like UK Census Collection -

Dan Lawyer said...

Genealogy is simple to those that do it. So is skipping a rope. Have you ever tried to teach a computer to skip rope? I haven't but I can imagine that it would get complex extremely fast. To succeed you would have to completely decompose the process of skipping rope. Understand the mechanics and physics of it, etc. The same is true if we want to have computers help people with a nascent knowledge of genealogy succeed.

Hugh W said...

and teh school children?

skipping - or listing their known family for a class project?

Doing geenalogy is a practical skill

Harold said...

Dan -- In contrast to Hugh, I think you're not making it complicated enough! Two phrases in the video bugged me. "Charts organize conclusions," but they might also be used to organize a hypothesis (or hypotheses) if they were complicated enough. More importantly, "theories evolve into conclusions" leaves a whole lot of ground undescribed (sort of like "Great American Desert"). I have been astonished to find how difficult it is to lay out even a fairly simple indirect-evidence argument and make sure it works and has been stated right, in a particular case. So while I can comment on this very general case, I'm devoid of helpful suggestions.

B.G. said...

An interesting exercise - I hadn't seen a concept map before, although I have used other kinds of process mapping extensively. Possible additions: 1) Publishing or disseminating research results could be another branch, perhaps linked to both research results and charts. This process is not necessarily collaborative. 2) The only tools currently included are the research plan and the work journal. Other aids such as gedcoms, lineage-based software and the Genealogical Proof Standard perhaps should also be mentioned on the diagram.