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Archiver > GENMSC > 2007-07 > 1184690366


From: (Robert Melson)
Subject: Re: Beyond GEDCOM
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:39:26 GMT
References: <slrnf9ol6e.cvf.usenet@goodwill.larseighner.com><1184689853.767732.28500@x35g2000prf.googlegroups.com>


In article <>,
"" <> writes:
> On Jul 17, 12:34 am, Lars Eighner <> wrote:
>> Here is the problem: GEDCOM has become the de facto standard for family
>> history and geneology data. And the problem with that is that the Mormons
>> own GEDCOM and thus it is rife with built-in religious limitations.
>>
>> As you might expect, GEDCOM does not allow you to enter a family created by
>> same-sex marriage or civil unions even where they are lawful. But there are
>> other limitations. For example, in GEDCOM 5.xx, an adopted child does not
>> belong to his family. When he looks up his family in a GEDCOM-compliant
>> file, he is not there. How needlessly hurtful is that?
>>
>> If a guy marries his 14-year-old cousin as his fifth wife, GEDCOM has no
>> problem dealing with that kind of family. But it cannot handle the Brady
>> Bunch.
>>
>> Now I suppose you could defend GEDCOM by saying it is supposed to record
>> only genetic --- that is, biological --- relationships. And of course,
>> there are important scientific and especially medical uses for that kind of
>> information. But it is not really true that GEDCOM records biological
>> relationships. It presumes that the husband of a woman who bears a child is
>> the father of the child, and we know since there is now DNA testing that
>> assumption is untrue in a significant portion of cases.
>>
>> Which brings me to my point. I'd like to develop a family history system
>> that is as compatible with GEDCOM as possible (since it is, as I have said,
>> the de facto standard with tons of software applications), but with
>> extensions to handle many diverse kinds of families that exist both in
>> modern America and in many traditional cultures.
>>
>> So, I would be grateful for any pointers to existing software that handles
>> all families or suggestions for extensions.
>>
>> --
>> Lars Eighner <http://larseighner.com/>; <http://myspace.com/larseighner>;
>> Countdown: 553 days to go.
>> Owing to massive spam from googlegroups, I do not see most posts from there.
>
> Check out The Master Genealogist.
>
> As an aside you should note that any program that depends on GEDCOM
> for anything other basic BMD info will have serious shortcomings
> depending on how the exporting and importing software follow the
> GEDCOM "standard" - which, imho, should be scrapped in its entirety.
>
>

Out of curiosity, what would you suggest replace the gedcom
"standard"? Is the problem so much with the standard or with
the programs that implement it? As Micro$oft and Oracle have
amply proved, a standard exists as a standard only so long as
the players consider themselves bound by it; once the standard
is breached it becomes meaningless.

Bob Melson


--
Robert G. Melson | Rio Grande MicroSolutions | El Paso, Texas
-----
"People unfit for freedom---who cannot do much with it---are
hungry for power." ---Eric Hoffer

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