The China Family Tree Geographic Information System

The official history, chorography and family trees constitute Chinese national history. Family trees contain a large amount of information regarding Chinese society, economy, culture, population, history and geography. To make full use of family trees and help resolve related problems in the humanities and social sciences, it is important to systematically collect, arrange, analyze, and integrate family tree information. This study proposes a strategy to construct the Family Tree Geographical Information System (FTGIS) by incorporating modern information technologies, such as databases, GIS, and web technologies, into the research on family trees. First, the concept and objectives of the FTGIS are discussed. Second, the key issues of the FTGIS are described in detail, including a unified spatial-temporal framework, FTGIS data model, family tree information specification and sharing as well as mass family tree information collection. Finally, a multilevel architecture is designed, and a prototype of the FTGIS platform is developed.