Graph Databases; Neo4j

[Thomas Wetmore]

Techs,

Has anyone tried implementing a genealogical database using Neo4J or other graph-based database?

Seems a natural. There is a video from the latest GraphConnect conference titled Graphs for Genealogists.

The graphs discussed there include pedigree and family tree stuff, but go far beyond into DNA data as well.

Best,

Tom Wetmore

[Luther Tychonievich]

I agree that graph databases are a natural fit for genealogy. I've experimented with them some myself (using OrientDB as my engine) as I was trying to design a reasoning support representation, but nothing ready for release. John Clark's trepo project had a distributed graph engine backend (with graph tools John wrote backed by a key-value store, if memory serves; correct me if I'm wrong, John). I've spoken with developers about a few other graph database genealogy projects they've tried, but none that were released.

So far as I can tell from its webpage, the "graphs for genealogy" project discussed in that GraphConnect talk is an analysis tool only and requires other tools to enter and edit data, visualize families, etc.

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[Wayne Pearson]

I tried it out a few years back, while using Neo4J for another project. I had a basic schema implemented, and some hand-entered data, which let me build a few queries for testing.

I liked the results, but then never took it further, with any sort of importer. It's certainly the direction I would take if I were to revisit writing my own tools again.

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[Ken Finnigan]

The last month or two I've been thinking about starting a project utilizing a graph database for genealogical data and research after a discussion on Twitter on the topic.

I haven't started yet, but keen to work with others if there's interest.

Ken

[Christopher Mosher]

I have done some work in this area. I have a grand plan for an entire genealogical system (a work in progress, of course) outlined here: https://github.com/cmosher01/Genealdb

Part of it includes storing all the data (relationships, events, citations, historical geography...) in Neo4j. I developed a prototype desktop application for this piece, using Java, with a configurable schema language: https://github.com/cmosher01/digred

The schema for Neo4j is defined in one of the example files: https://github.com/cmosher01/digred/blob/main/example/genopcit.digr This is still a major work in progress, but it defines many of the concepts discussed over the years: a hierarchy of citations and evidence extracted from them, maintaining all events and separate persona over time, maintaining links between them if they are deemed to refer to "the same" real person, and allowing for conjectures and levels of confidence to be recorded.

Chris Mosher