Improving Record Linkage Through Pedigrees

• Main Author: Pixton, Burdette N.
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2006
• Subjects: record linkage; computer science; neural network; Computer Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/482; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1481&context=etd

Record linkage, in a genealogical context, is the process of identifying individuals from multiple sources which refer to the same real-world entity. Current solutions focus on the individuals in question and on complex rules developed by human experts. Genealogical databases are highly-structured with relationships existing between the individuals and other instances. These relationships can be utilized and human involvement greatly minimized by using a filtered structured neural network. These neural networks, using traditional back-propagation methods, are biased in a way to make the network human readable. The results show an increase in precision and recall when pedigree data is available and used.