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David Furnish : My Personal Family History Dashboard. Brand Niemann Director and Senior Data Scientist Semantic Community http://semanticommunity.info/David_Furnish-My_Personal_Family_History_Dashboard AOL Government Blogger http://gov.aol.com/bloggers/brand-niemann / January 29, 2012.
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David Furnish:My Personal Family History Dashboard Brand Niemann Director and Senior Data Scientist Semantic Community http://semanticommunity.info/David_Furnish-My_Personal_Family_History_Dashboard AOL Government Blogger http://gov.aol.com/bloggers/brand-niemann/ January 29, 2012
Preface • Yesterday I was shifting through my home office at year-end to "out with the old and in with the new" and rediscovered a hand-made book entitled "David Furnish: Descendants, History & Family Record" given to me by my grandmother, Ethel Elaine Niemann, more than 40 years ago. This book contains an index with over 1900 names, including mine, and stories like the following: • "William David Hollabaugh, 88, who as a youth, watched the battle of Gettysburg from a point of vantage in a tree and a few months later heard President Abraham Lincoln speak his immortal words at Gettysburg, dropped dead in Nebraska City Saturday morning. He died in the post office, a building he helped build as a skilled carpenter, before his sudden death came. William married Margaret Jane Furnish (daughter of David Furnish) and they were the parents of seven children (the youngest of which was my grandmother Ethel Elaine Niemann), had a good life and spent many anniversaries together, their 59th being their last." • I resolved to add these names to my family history at Family Search and to the new Fan Chart. But first I need the names in a digital form so I did a Google Search and found the book, but it was not in digital form, and only available at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN. I recalled that many years ago, I had tried to contact the author of this book, Vera (Furnish) Harris, Hartog, to get an electronic copy and more formation, but received no reply, so I assumed that she had died. I learned from the book's Preface that Vera had received much help in her work from that library. Family Search is now using a wiki so I decided to use mine (MindTouch) and a dashboard tool (Spotfire)to build my personal Family History Dashboard.
Wikipedia • Family History: • While genealogy is the convenient label for the field, family history is the over-arching term, since genealogy in the strict sense is only concerned with tracing unified lineages. • In the narrower sense of the term, a family history is a biography of a single family over several generations, based on a tested genealogy and fleshed out with the fuller story of the family's place in society, the dramas of its achievements or failures and its acquisition or loss of wealth and rank. • Family history can either be in the form of a printed document, electronic document or sound or video recording that preserves this history for future generations. The readers will expect it to describe where the family originated from, name the members of the family and state who they married. • The growing interest in family history in the media coupled with easier access to online records has allowed people with a curiosity to start to investigate their ancestry. • Family Tree: • A family tree, or pedigree or ancestor chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. • Another technique is a "fan chart", which features a half circle chart with concentric rings: the person of interest is the inner circle, the second circle is divided in two (each side is one parent), the third circle is divided in four, and so forth. Fan charts depict paternal and maternal ancestors. • The longest family tree in the world today is that of the Chinese philosopher and educator Confucius (551–479 BC), and he is the descendant of King Tang (1675–1646 BC). The tree spans more than 80 generations, and includes more than 2 million members. • Family tree are also made using computer software and web based sites. Wikitree.com started in 2008 and has an ambition to build the biggest tree with anyone contributing in the free web site. • Ahnentafel: • An ahnentafel (German for ancestor table is a genealogical numbering system for listing a person's direct ancestors in a fixed sequence of ascent. The subject (proband) of the ahnentafel is listed as #1, the subject's father as #2 and the mother as #3, the paternal grandparents as #4 and #5 and the maternal grandparents as #6 and #7, and so on, back through the generations. Apart from #1, who can be male or female, all even-numbered persons are male, and all odd-numbered persons are female. In this schema, the number of any person's father is double the person's number, and a person's mother is double the person's number plus one. Using this knowledge of numeration, one can derive some basic information about individuals who are listed without additional research. • This construct displays a person's genealogy compactly, without the need for a diagram such as a family tree. It is particularly useful in situations where one may be restricted to presenting a genealogy in plain text, for example, in e-mails or newsgroup articles. In effect, an ahnentafel is a method for storing a binary tree in an array by listing the nodes (individuals) in level-order (in generation order). • List of Family Trees: • Lots done in Wikipedia!
David Furnish: Descendants, History & Family Record by Vera (Furnish) Harris, Hartog • Because I am a novice at compiling genealogies and have trouble following some of the more accepted methods, I have what seems to me (as well as to others who have examined it) a rather workable formula. Some of it of course is not original. • The left hand column of the page is the direct descendant or "blood line" except for a few children that have been adopted into their family, which I have included. • The numbering and abbreviations are as follows: • 1) David Furnish • 2) His children • 3) His grandchildren • 4) His g-grandchildren • 5) His g-g-grandchildren • 6) His g-g-g-grandchildren • 7) His g-g-g-g-grandchildren • b. = born • d. = died • m. = date married • 1 m. = date of first marriage • 2 m. = date of second marriage etc. • The name underlined (Sarah Jean) is the name the person used. • I have copied some biographical sketches verbatim as they were given to me and others I have edited.
My Thoughts • Follow the 5-Step Process From Previous Dashboard Work (see next slide) • Create Three Visualizations: • Key (see previous slide) • David Furnish and His Children (10) • David Furnish’s Eldest Son (William Henry Furnish) and • Family Tree Data and Its Visualization Can be Very Complex (see Wikipedia slide): • Even What People Died of Has Changed (e.g. Neuralga of the Heart is now Coronary!) • Use the Simplified Method and Dashboard That Supports Drill Down • Give Every One A Web Address With Subparts For: • Essential Data • Documentation • Stories • Resources • Use Spotfire Network Analytics?!
5-Step Process From Previous Dashboard Work • 1. Build an table of contents-like index of the complex document with well-defined web addresses in MindTouch. • 2. Build that index in an Excel spreadsheet so it supports faceted search in a Spotfire dashboard. • 3. Build a Spotfire knowledgebase with that Excel spreadsheet. • 4. Build multiple knowledgebases in a Spotfire dashboard so they can be seen, compared, merged, harmonized, sorted, searched, downloaded, and shared on mobile devices (e.g. iPad). • 5. Scale the previous architectural pattern with more content volume and types if necessary.
1. Build an table of contents-like index of the complex document with well-defined web addresses in MindTouch http://semanticommunity.info/David_Furnish-My_Personal_Family_History_Dashboard
2. Build that index in an Excel spreadsheet so it supports faceted search in a Spotfire dashboard http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/16853/=DavidFurnishFamilyHistory.xlsx
3. Build a Spotfire knowledgebase with that Excel spreadsheet Spotfire Web Player
4. Build multiple knowledgebases in a Spotfire dashboard • Key to David Furnish Family History Data Set • Number of Descendants Table and Graphic (as of November 1976) • David Furnish Family History Data Set (as of January 18, 2012)
5. Scale the previous architectural pattern with more content volume and types if necessary • Drill down in each David Furnish Child for Their Children, Grand-Children, etc. – Done • Make the Index of 1900 Names a Data Set for Use in Family History Search • See Next Slides for Work in Progress
Register for New Family Search https://ident.familysearch.org/cis-web/pages/registration/registration.html?referrer=new%20FamilySearch&lng=en
Registration https://ident.familysearch.org/cis-web/pages/registration/registration.html?referrer=new%20FamilySearch&lng=en
Activation Email Sent https://ident.familysearch.org/cis-web/pages/registration/registration.html
Log-in To New Family Search https://new.familysearch.org/en/action/unsec/welcome
New Family Search Is Not Ready https://new.familysearch.org/en/action/unsec/welcome?failedLogin=loginnotauthorized
Discover Your Family History https://www.familysearch.org/
Historical Records for David Furnish Refine the Search https://www.familysearch.org/search/records/index#count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3ADavid%20%2Bsurname%3AFurnish
Refined Search for David Furnish Click Here for Next Slide https://www.familysearch.org/search/records/index#count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3ADavid%20%2Bsurname%3AFurnish%20%2Bbirth_place%3A%22Suffolk%20England%22~%20%2Bbirth_year%3A180
United States Census 1870 for David Furnish Note: Omits First Four Children! Click Here for Next Slide https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MXXF-WRX
United States Census 1870 Image for David Furnish https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-267-11096-81946-79?cc=1438024
New Family Search for David Furnish Note difference in Birth: 27 October 1805 here versus 19 October 1805 from book. Note: Must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use this. https://new.familysearch.org/en/action/hourglassiconicview?familyid=p.K2MF-R8Y|p.K2JY-HMV&bookid=p.K2 MF-R8Y&datapath=hq.p.K2MF-R8Y_p.K2MF-R8Y|p.K2JY-HMV,p.LC7H-JNH|p.LHQT-95G,p.K2JY-H8Z|p.K2JY-HFK,,,,
Need To Add Rest of Children Note: Web Address the Same As in Previous Slide
Fan Chart to Spreadsheet http://semanticommunity.info/@api/deki/files/16853/=DavidFurnishFamilyHistory.xlsx
RootsTech2012 Developer ChallengeEntry Submission • Finish & Polish: Is the application easy-to-use and aesthetically appealing? • I find my selected wiki (MindTouch) and visualization (Silver Spotfire) technologies easy-to-use and aesthetically appealing in both my work as a data blogger for AOL Government and as a Family History worker. • Effective Solution: Does the application provide an effective solution to a real problem? • Family Search is beginning to use Wiki technology. What is needed is a way to integrate Family Search with Wiki technology and visualization technologies. This is what I am providing using my talents as a Data Scientist building cloud computing applications for mobile devices. The key for me was to work out the wiki and spreadsheets templates for this like I had done for other non-Family History applications.
RootsTech 2012 Developer ChallengeEntry Submission • Market Value: How large is the population the app will serve? How vital is the problem it is trying to solve? • MindTouchhas become the world's most respected social knowledgebase and Silver Spotfire has caught on widely as a free cloud application for those wanting a way to visualize and share spreadsheet data on mobile devices like iPads. The Spotfire Dashboard is readily updated with changes to the spreadsheet. • Originality of Concept: Is the application unique or innovative? • This application has been unique and innovated in my data science work and I think it will become unique and innovative for Family History work. It implements Linked Open Data and make Family History data part of the Semantic Web.
RootsTech 2012 Developer ChallengeEntry Submission • Business Viability: How likely is the application to earn broad adoption and satisfy customer needs? • This application has already earned broad adoption and satisfied customer needs for social networking applications and thus I think it would for Family History. • My Notes: A wiki is like word processing software and a spreadsheet is a familiar tool to most. I want to make Family History data "real data" that can be easily read, updated, modified, and reused in Family Search and other tools that visualize and display it like Fan Charts that are very popular now. I can take a Fan Chart that is difficult to read as a PDF file on the computer and when printed out, except on a very large piece of paper, and search, filter by facets, create multiple graphics and statistics, and include biological children, adoption, and multiple marriages which I have not seen done in Fan Charts. To me, having the Family History data always visible in a spreadsheet on the desktop, referenced to well-defined URLs in the wik, and sharable on the Web and mobile devices like the iPad, with the desired security and privacy, is the future of Family History work for the next generation. • Bottom Line: I have been able to integrate Family History information from Family Search, Fan Charts, Books, etc. into an interoperability interface with Linked Open Data for the Semantic Web using practical tools that are available in the cloud.
