The following pages constitute the collected research notes for the creation of STEMMA®. I’ve tried to assemble these in a coherent fashion so that they might be used as a resource for similar work elsewhere.
The work is not claimed to be exhaustive but the covered a huge range of topics related to family history data. They contain many links to other resources, but also make many independent points and observations that should be considered.
Note that the STEMMA specification, as written up here, is still a working research project and does not yet address every point raised in these research notes.
In addition to the subjects listed below, there is also an exploration of the many cultural variations around the world, including a short introduction to globalisation from a computer software perspective.
Attribution
Relationship to Citations
Data Control
Data sensitivity
Data protection
Copyright
Informal permissions and prohibitions
Dates
Calendars
Machine-readable date values
Machine-readable calendar specifications
Imprecision
Granularity
Synchronised dates (aka dual dates, or double dates)
E&C
Representation of transcription anomalies
Representation of original emphasis, footnotes, marginalia, etc
Adding alternative meaning/spelling to transcribed text
Proof and GPS
Conclusion sharing
Reasoning and Proof Arguments
Linking conclusions to reasoning, evidence, information, and sources
Personae, and equivalents for other subject entities
Source mining
Events
Simple and protracted events
Hierarchical events
Relation to Persons, Places, Animals, and Groups
Inheritance of event properties
Relational constraints between events
Extensibility
Partially controlled vocabularies for tag values
Custom Properties, including units
Schema extensions
Additional types of subject entity (beyond Person, Animal, Place, Group)
Groups
Family units
Time-dependent Person and Animal association
Group hierarchies
Alternative names and spelling
Creation and Demise
Related entities (splits, joins, and other connections)
Persons
Name structure
Name sorting, collation, case conversation
Formal and informal presentation styles
Alternative names and spelling
Time dependency
Personal Name Authorities
Membership of Groups
Include animals in a parallel fashion to persons
Physical data formats
Data Model versus Serialisation Format
Container format for data and attachments (or Bundle)
Run-time object model
Places
Distinguished from Location and Postal Address
Place hierarchies
Alternative names and spelling
Time dependency
Place Authorities
Creation and Demise
Related entities (splits, joins, and other connections)
Coordinates
Properties
Connection to Person, Animal, Place, or Group
Separation of original value from interpreted value
Transcription anomalies
Data-types, fractional values, and units of measurement
Conclusion links
Multi-valued.
Personae, and equivalent for other subject entities
Resources
Attachments (e.g. images, documents)
Physical Artefacts
Transmission format
Sources & citations
Simple and complex citations
Citation elements
Analytical commentary
Discursive notes
Citation styles & modes
Multi-source and conflated citations
Citation Templates
Pre-formed citation strings
Structured narrative
Mark-up (descriptive and semantic)
Linking text to text, and text to data
Original attributes used for emphasis
General annotation-style notes
Transcription of manuscript, typescript, and audio sources