Genealogy
In the last 150 years or so, the general interest in genealogy has been steadily increasing. Starting in the mid-1800’s, governments began to make more meticulous records of birth, death, and census data. The first genealogical societies began around the same time. Today there are thousands of such societies, and people are searching out their ancestors like never before. This increased interest leads to the collection and processing of more data than ever before. The result is that millions of genealogical records are generated every year, and billions of records are now accumulated in various institutions around the world. Searching this data can be a daunting task for the genealogically inclined individual. Thankfully, the technology used to process genealogical data has improved as steadily as the interest in genealogical research and the collection of that data. Today’s greatest challenge is digitizing and indexing data. Another important challenge that emerges from millions of people searching their ancestry is the duplication of work. The research of isolated individuals often turns up common ancestors. Without a central repository of genealogical data, these isolated researches will duplicate each other’s work. The solution to these problems is the linking together of existing genealogical databases through common standards and cooperation. When genealogical societies get together and cooperate to bring all their individual work into a comprehensive whole, the family of Man can finally be completely linked.