Genealogy Discussion

SeanOleary: One of my (relatively minor) side hobbies is genealogy. This is probably due to two relatives, one on each side of my family tree, which are absolute maniacs about it.

I'm certain that the WikiWikiWeb could be a useful tool to organize genealogical research. Many genealogical books indicate that you should keep well-organized records. The ease of changing and updating information (no HTML editing required), could make a PersonalWiki a great tool for a researcher.

Some thoughts on Genealogical Research:

The basic unit in Genealogy is the Person.

The other basic unit in Genealogy is the Family. The family is defined as one or two Persons, and zero or more offspring Children.

A Person could be in several Families. For Example, JohnDoe is the Child in one Family, and a Parent in another family, and a Spouse in a third family (a second marriage).

Therefore a single (meaning sole, not unmarried) Person is a Family, just not a very large one.

My main genealogical database is organized with GeneWeb?, which has a web-based user interface and can import and export data in the Gedcom format. I do, however, use a personal wiki (in my case, ZWiki) to organize related information that doesn't fit into a strict 'family-tree' format. The wiki format is useful for tracking relationships that aren't strictly familial, but are nevertheless important, such as friendships or business associations. It's also useful for keeping track of place names.

A wiki may facilitate collaboration between my family members who live on three different continents and have a lot of stories to share. Some of them have just discovered the internet and would have less trouble editing wiki pages than conventional HTML. The security functionality of the ZopeApplicationServer/ZwiKi combination could be used to protect confidential information.

I'd like to know if anyone has used a wiki in this fashion, and if there are other security issues I should consider.

-- ClaudineChionh?

The only issue I can see is a user unintentionally deleting content. Using a version control wiki can help you roll back mistakes.

If you publish your GED on the web, you may want to keep that public (properly sanitized, of course). I found long lost cousins by searching family trees on the web.

Also when your work is "done", some wikis allow you to convert your wiki db to static html.

~ SeanOleary

CategoryGenealogy?