It has been a while since I have looked, but I believe the  National
Genealogical Society has a data model for family tree software.  The
following links are to the NGS and GEDCOM is the file format standard.
I think it should be an easy conversion to a database structure.  If you
do something that exports the data, it should probably export in the
GEDCOM format because that is what most software packages will import.

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/
http://www.gentech.org/ngsgentech/main/Home.asp

GEDCOM seems to be the standard file format:
http://www.gendex.com/gedcom55/55gctoc.htm

Brad

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Greene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 12:49 PM
To: Nitin; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: Ancestry program


well... when I do db design, I tend to start with the objects of my system.
The one that comes to mind in your case is people.  

so you'll need a people table.

well what are the details of a person?
first_name
Last_name
Middle_name1
Middle_name2
Maiden_name
[any other basic bio data]


so you'll need those columns....

Well to keep track of each person, each one will need an ID... id's are
usually numbers, so now you add a:
person_id 
field.  This field would likely have an auto_increment attribute to help
number them for you....

ok... now that we have people, what else do we need?  relationships between
them.... well... in terms of human beings, everyone has one biological
mother and one biological father, so we add in

mother_id
father_id

leaving the values of these as null would be equivalent of being 'unknown'

and we now have, data-wise, a system that can trace biological heritage, can
handle siblings and half-siblings.

Other ideas for objects:

Marrages 
- this one would be tricky/interesting, as marrages can change over time,
and people can have multiple marrages (although usually not two at a time,
unless bigamy is allowed in your user's state/country).  Strictly speaking,
marrages are not necessary to trace heritage, but are good info...  




> -->From: Nitin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -->Sent: Monday, October 27, 2003 10:46 PM
> -->To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -->Subject: Ancestry program
> -->
> -->Hi all,
> -->
> -->I'm developing a web based ancestry program. The user 
> wants it to be
> -->static, that means, it isn't for all to use, but his family. Better
> to
> -->say, it'll contain only his family tree.
> -->
> -->Now, I cant think of the proper db design, which will help any user
> to
> -->find his or her relationship with any other person in the tree.
> Though, I
> -->can design a simple database, where everything will have to be done
> -->through queries and scripts, but I want those queries to keep as
> simple
> -->as possible.
> -->
> -->Any help will be appreciated, as I'm new to such a problem.
> -->
> -->Thanx in advance
> -->Nitin
> 
> 
> 
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