How would you design a report to disambiguate linked relationships

[emyoulation]

After finding all the people in a newspaper article (a funeral notice, in this case), it would be useful to have a report which (briefly) summarizes the relationships.

What sort of information would be good for an extended relationship report? … that informs but does not overwhelm.

I started by linking all the people mentioned in a newspaper article (a funeral notice, in this case),

Did the “low hanging fruit” first:
After setting the Home Person to the subject of the article, filtered the People flat list to: persons within 3 degrees of the Home Person; and, Probably alive when the article was published.

Then looked through the names for People matches that could be made Active Person before highlighting the name in the Note Editor and clicking the Link note toolbar button. (The Active Person is the default Link suggestion.) For any “Mrs. and Mrs.” or “and family”, I linked the Family instead of a person. Since it is harder filter the Family and not possible to make a Family active directly, had to use the Clipboard as a crutch. (Drag the Family ID field label… not the ID value… to the clipboard, then make it the Active Family via the Clipboard context menu.) This time, after clicking the Link note toolbar button, change the Link Type from Person to Family and the selected Active Family.

A tedious process… but effective. Now rolling over the linked name will show the standardized names and the ID.

Then had to be more creative in finding. Eliminated the “probably alive” and changed the name display from “Last, Given” to “Given Surname” to discover firstnames that might have had a surname change.

Then worked through the lower-yield matching schemes. After hitting my personal threshold for ‘diminishing returns’, I admitted that they may not already be in the tree. Added a placeholder for linking and used it to drive some external searches with the WebSearch gramplet. Most could be found and quickly spliced into the tree.

The output experiments

Been fiddling with a gramplet that lays out a compact NGSQ Register-style ‘breadcrumb’ pedigree. And that seems good for the simple relationships.

Mrs. Carrie Cotton (Focal Person)
Carise Alice² née McCullough Cotton (William F.¹; John R.^A; Phoebe Elizabeth^B née Mulford McCullough)

Pallbearers:

Louis D.² Stanley (Nancy Priscilla¹ née McCullough Stanley; John R.^A McCullough; Phoebe Elizabeth^B née Mulford McCullough)

Deep Connections:

Carise Alice née McCullough Cotton
Relationship with Pall bearers

1. Stanley, Louis D. [first cousin]
   • child of McCullough Stanley, Nancy Priscilla [aunt]
   • sibling of McCullough, William F. [father]

…

5. Hofmeister, Todd Lloyd
   husband of McCullough Hofmeister, Della A. [first cousin]
   • child of McCullough, Reuben Hebron [uncle]
   • sibling of McCullough, William F. [father]

Or the more complex relationship of Rev. A.C.Locke (2nd cousin 1R of the ex-wife of a 2nd cousin) to Mrs. Carrie Cotton:

• Alfred Cookman⁴ Locke (James Hamilton³; James²; William¹ Locke)
• Ora Belle⁵ née Baughman McCullough (Nancy Ann⁴ née Locke Baughman; John³; David B.²; William¹ Locke)
• ex-wife of: Harry Claude² McCullough (2nd cousin; William Franklin, Sr.¹; Abraham^A; Phoebe Elizabeth^B née Mulford McCullough)
• Carise Alice² née McCullough Cotton (William F.¹; John R.^A; Phoebe Elizabeth^B née Mulford McCullough)