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From: Gladys Friedman Paulin <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Re: Name Registry?
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 17:22:22 -0500
References: <1d0.16fdf61b.2d25e9b3@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <1d0.16fdf61b.2d25e9b3@aol.com>


Or how many people have multiple places of birth, or different mothers.

My father listed an incorrect place of birth on his SS-5 and a different
incorrect place on his military service record. My maternal grandfather
listed his mother's maiden name on his SS-5 as an entirely different person
that on his marriage certificate.

I think in an ideal world, these things would not happen, but before Social
Security numbers and standardized data in places like banks and motor vehicle
registrations, people became whoever they wished based on their circumstances
at the time. That is why we do critical analyses, thorough research and
provide arguments when presented with conflicting evidence.

I think Jerry's hypothesis has jumped from the specific (combining two
databases of cooperating researchers) to the sublime which ain't gonna' work
as long as we are dealing with human beings, their foibles, emotions and
tangled relationships!

Happy New Year to all,
Gladys
Gladys Friedman Paulin, CGRS
Winter Springs, FL
--------------------------------
CGRS, Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, is a Service Mark of the
Board for Certification of Genealogists and used under license by Board-
certified persons who meet program standards and periodic rigorous
evaluations.




Quoting :

> Jerry:
>
> I think you reached the heart of the matter when you wrote:
>
> > A globally unique identifier is basically a convenient surrogate for a set
> > of real-world data (e.g. name, birth date, etc.). If that set of data is
> > duplicated but you suspect two separate individuals are involved, you can
> > create different identifiers for each.
>
> What you seem to be describing is not a unique Identifier for an individual
> person (who somehow would have to be distinguished from other individuals
> with
> similar names through other identifying characteristics in order to be
> assigned a unique identifier), but rather a unique identifier for a persona,
> as that
> term is used in the Gentech Data Model--a statement or data set that includes
>
> a name and associated data or factual information, as given in or by a
> particular source.
>
> The number, then, would not identify a particular individual or person, but
> rather a set of data associated with a name from a particular source. A
> unique
> identifier for that data set could serve a useful purpose in data exchange,
> but when you consider the number of personas associated with any individual
> person--the number can reach hundreds--the potential size of the registry is
>
> staggering.
>
> Assignment of a unique persona number would still leave to each genealogist
> the judgment call on whether any given persona, whether or not uniquely
> identified by number, should be attributed to a particular human person, or
> whether
> inconsistencies among possibly related personas suggest instead the existence
>
> of two or more different individuals to whom they should be attributed.
>
> For most individuals living in the US since the early 1900s, their Social
> Security Account Number will serve to uniquely identify them as persons.
> Before
> that, unique identity remains problematic. Social Security has asked for full
>
> name at birth, date and place of birth, and names of parents (and more
> recently, parents' Social Security numbers) to describe and distinguish
> individuals
> applying for Social Security account numbers. Now that it has the
> information
> from the SS-5 application forms in a database, it would be interesting to
> know
> how frequently different individuals have had the same date and place of
> birth and names of parents, up to the time parents' Social Security numbers
> were
> first required. That would give us some indication of the extent to which
> those
> data items uniquely describe an individual.
>
> Donn Devine, CG, CGI
> Wilmington DE
>
> CG, Certified Genealogist, CGI, and Certified Genealogical Instructor are
> service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under
> license
> by board certificants after periodic evaluation, and the board name is
> registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.
>
>
> ==== APG Mailing List ====
> The Association of Professional Genealogists
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>
>

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