Associations, but for Events

[StoltHD]

@Saya7

Exactly! I can picture a Relationship View version of inter-connected events. However, I think there are times when the relationship between events isn’t strictly hierarchical. As a hypothetical example: a couple is getting a divorce with extended legal proceedings. Obviously, court appearances, custody agreements, splitting of assets, etc. could be considered sub-events of the divorce as the main event. But what about the prenuptial contract? The arrest of the husband that kicked off the divorce proceedings? The two (separate) affairs the wife had a decade previously? Even with tiers of hierarchical relationships (Specific Event related to an Affair → Affair → Divorce Prologue → Divorce Proceedings → Marriage; where the affair summary and divorce prologue are also sub-events of the Marriage), I’m not sure you can clearly display connections between events happening in parallel.

Even events of these types are hierarchical — because each event is a sub-event of the divorce. Even if events occur in parallel, they still belong to the overarching context. For example:

“The Divorce” – Hierarchical Breakdown:

• Initial misbehaviors (if blame is relevant)

• Partner one blames partner two

• Partner two hits partner one with a frying pan

• Partner one gets angry

• Moving out

• Court appearances

  • Time together in court

  • Time partner one is in court

  • Time partner two is in court

• Retrieving remaining belongings (whoever moved out last)

Just because something happens in parallel in life doesn’t mean it can’t be placed into a hierarchy. That said, I agree — it’s extremely useful for both fiction-based and historical events to be connectable via named, directional or non-directional relationships.

I actually do this in Obsidian using the wiki-link system.
For example: If two ships sail from the same port on the same date, they’re linked via the port and date.
That also links them to the sailors who went ashore during that timeframe — until proven otherwise. So every link or relationship should carry a citation and classification: proven, not proven, unproven, etc.

To be honest, this is Network Graph and advanced Gantt Chart territory.
That’s why I primarily use Obsidian, Foam for VS Code, and Aeon Timeline for research — alongside Gramps.
These tools help visualize complex interconnections, even though many of them could technically be modeled as relationships in Gramps notes.

Two events happening in parallel can still be sub-events of a shared parent — for example, the lifespan of an object.
But it’s not always necessary to link every event. Sometimes the connection is a person, a place, an object, or another entity.

If two parallel events are both connected to the same object, they’re sub-events of a broader context — with the object’s lifespan as the top-level container.
That said, this isn’t always a practical way to think. That’s why timelines and network graphs are essential research tools.

In genealogy, everything is hierarchical in some way — the shape of that hierarchy depends entirely on the observer’s perspective.

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I just posted a few print screens of my Zotero and Obsidian structure as a comment in another post:

Computeractive 718 (10 Sept 2025): Best genealogy tool for Linux?

Here’s a brief example of how I work: I begin by registering each source in Zotero — regardless of type — entering all relevant metadata and establishing the appropriate folder structure both in Zotero and in my Obsidian Vault. This ensures consistency and traceability from the very start. For instance, historical newspapers — such as weekly listings of positional data for over 2,000 Norwegian mercantile ships between 1920 and 1940. I know several of my relatives sailed on multiple of these ve…

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I’ve used TiddlyWiki in the past, but the single-HTML-file format didn’t scale well for large projects. I’ve also tried Twine, Causality, Freeplane, Scapple, Scrivener, yWriter, and Segrada — but ultimately landed on Obsidian, Foam for VS Code and Aeon Timeline as my core tools.
I also have Zettlr and Joplin installed…

I always use software tools far beyond what they were originally designed for. Thinking creatively isn’t optional — it’s essential if you want to build robust, scalable solutions.
And sometimes, you just hope others see the value in your adaptations and consider integrating those features natively.

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Note:
This post was originally drafted in Norwegian and refined with the help of Microsoft Copilot. The translation process included grammatical adjustments, restructuring for clarity, and stylistic polishing to improve flow and readability in English. The content remains true to the original intent, with all technical and conceptual details preserved.