{ "model": { "rank": 2535, "code": "thing-q47307", "model_id": "vr.tr.genealogy", "name": "genealogy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain genealogy and its methods, relay sources, standards and tools from genealogical references, describe specialised fields including royal and African American genealogy, and distinguish genealogy from family history writing, from genetics and from heraldry.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q47307/", "tier": 2, "score": 103, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "African American genealogy", "civil genealogy", "genealogical research", "computer genealogy", "Genealogy of the British Royal Family", "Genealogy of the Spanish Royal Family", "Irish genealogy", "genealogy and heraldry" ], "aliasCount": 8, "merged": 8, "knownIn": 103, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.genealogy", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q47307", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q47307", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T06:11:32Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q47307", "registryId": "vr.tr.genealogy", "name": "genealogy", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q47307/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.genealogy", "name": "genealogy", "purpose": "Let an agent explain genealogy and its methods, relay sources, standards and tools from genealogical references, describe specialised fields including royal and African American genealogy, and distinguish genealogy from family history writing, from genetics and from heraldry.", "definition": "The study of families, family history and the tracing of lineages, using records such as civil registration, parish registers, censuses, wills, migration and military records and, increasingly, DNA testing and computer databases, practised by hobbyists and professionals, in fields from the genealogies of royal families such as the British and Spanish to community-focused work such as African American genealogy, which confronts the record gaps of slavery; genealogy supports identity, legal claims and historical research.", "what_it_is_for": "Tracing families and lineages.", "affordances": [ "explain methods and sources", "relay standards and tools", "describe specialised fields", "distinguish related fields" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Record-based", "Lineage tracing", "Hobby and profession", "DNA integration" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; family trees, records and charts.", "visual_identification": [ "Study of families and lineages", "Genealogical research, civil genealogy, computer genealogy, African American genealogy, royal genealogies", "Family history adds narrative; genetics studies inheritance; heraldry concerns arms" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "major record types", "typical_range": "civil, parish, census, probate, migration, military", "unit": "list", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "consumer DNA tests taken", "typical_range": "tens of millions", "unit": "count", "note": "estimates" }, { "quantity": "data standard", "typical_range": "GEDCOM", "unit": "name", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "documentary genealogy using civil and church records", "genetic genealogy", "computer and online genealogy", "royal and noble genealogies such as those of the British and Spanish royal families", "community genealogies such as African American genealogy", "legal and forensic genealogy" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "humanities", "why": "discipline in registry terms" }, { "relation": "uses", "target": "civil registration", "why": "and parish records" }, { "relation": "is extended by", "target": "genetic genealogy", "why": "with DNA testing" }, { "relation": "records", "target": "family tree", "why": "as its output" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Genealogical proof standards such as the BCG standard", "Data protection and access rules for records", "GEDCOM and data exchange standards", "Consumer DNA testing regulations" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Unverified online trees", "Privacy risks of DNA data", "Record gaps for enslaved and marginalised people", "Agents giving personal legal advice on inheritance claims" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What genealogy is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is genealogy, and how does it differ from family history, genetics and heraldry?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about methods, a specific family, DNA or a legal claim?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fields", "name": "Fields", "description": "Fields.", "findings": [ { "id": "fields-finding", "name": "Fields", "description": "Fields.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are documentary, genetic, computer, royal, community and forensic genealogy?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific field?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "research", "name": "Research", "description": "Doing research.", "rationale": "Practice.", "layers": [ { "id": "sources", "name": "Sources", "description": "Sources.", "findings": [ { "id": "sources-finding", "name": "Sources", "description": "Sources.", "questions": [ { "text": "What records do genealogists use, and how are they found and evaluated?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "standards", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards and tools.", "findings": [ { "id": "standards-finding", "name": "Standards", "description": "Standards.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do proof standards, software and GEDCOM support reliable research?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "special", "name": "Special", "description": "Specialised fields.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "community", "name": "Community", "description": "African American and community genealogy.", "findings": [ { "id": "community-finding", "name": "Community", "description": "Community.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does African American genealogy address slavery-era record gaps, as practitioners describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation respectful and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "royal", "name": "Royal", "description": "Royal genealogies.", "findings": [ { "id": "royal-finding", "name": "Royal", "description": "Royal.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are the genealogies of the British, Spanish and other royal families recorded and used?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific royal genealogy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "DNA and ethics.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "dna", "name": "DNA", "description": "Genetic genealogy.", "findings": [ { "id": "dna-finding", "name": "DNA", "description": "DNA.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does DNA testing complement records, and what are its limits and privacy issues, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits genetic genealogy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did genealogy develop from lineage records and heraldic visitations to a popular pursuit?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the history of genealogy?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should genetic genealogy and African American genealogy be separate primary entries?", "How should genealogical sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific royal genealogies; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a genealogy, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain genealogy and its methods, relay sources, standards and tools from genealogical references, describe specialised fields including royal and African American genealogy, and distinguish genealogy from family history writing, from genetics and from heraldry.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: African American genealogy, civil genealogy, genealogical research, computer genealogy, Genealogy of the British Royal Family, Genealogy of the Spanish Royal Family, Irish genealogy, genealogy and heraldry.", "8 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 103 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a genealogy, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "African American genealogy", "civil genealogy", "genealogical research", "computer genealogy", "Genealogy of the British Royal Family", "Genealogy of the Spanish Royal Family", "Irish genealogy", "genealogy and heraldry" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 103 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 8 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one genealogy from another, and a genealogy from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a genealogy sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a genealogy from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a genealogy passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a genealogy between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a genealogy, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a genealogy is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a genealogy says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a genealogy contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a genealogy and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What genealogy studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does genealogy take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does genealogy establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where genealogy is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark genealogy as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place genealogy, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a genealogy came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a genealogy and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a genealogy is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a genealogy, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a genealogy, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a genealogy is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }