Describing Civil Registry Data with Linked Open Data Vocabularies

Richard L. Zijdeman, International Institute of Social History
Rick J. Mourits, International Institute of Social History
Joe Raad, Vrije Universiteit
Ruben Schalk, Utrecht University
Auke Rijpma, Utrecht University
Bram Van den Hout, IISG

Many large historical databases rely on more or less continuous registration of events (moves, marriages, employment spells. A common type of registry across countries are the civil registers. At least from an analysis point of view, various of the variables in such registries are constant over time and even across countries. We propose a vocabulary and model for these vital events in the Netherlands which is partly based on existing vocabularies in the heritage and life sciences domains. We therefore believe that this vocabulary could be used to describe civil registry data in other countries as well. Moreover, being register data, they often serve as a backbone for linking other datasets. Having a common vocabulary facilitates such linkage procedures. Finally, various of the variables are also available in other types of generic population registrations, such as church or population registers. We therefore believe that a commonly shared vocabulary would enhance the FAIRness of data, reduce the cost of data harmonization and make the process of working with multiple datasets more efficient.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 149. Vocabularies. Exploring Shared Names for Default Variables across Databases II