Glossary
This glossary defines key terms used in the GENEALOGIX specification.
A
Approximate Date
A date with uncertainty or imprecision, expressed using keywords like ABT (about), BEF (before), AFT (after), or BET (between). Part of GENEALOGIX's fuzzy date support. Can be combined with calendar prefixes (e.g., JULIAN ABT 1731).
See Also: Date Format Standard
Archive
A complete set of GENEALOGIX files containing family history data, conventionally kept in a Git repository. The directory layout is a recommendation, not a requirement; the parser identifies files by their top-level keys.
See Also: Archive Organization
Archive Metadata
An optional top-level metadata block, typically in the archive's root file, carrying archive-level provenance: export date, source system and version, GEDCOM version, character set, copyright, language, notes, and submitter contact details. Preserved through GEDCOM import/export.
See Also: Archive Metadata
Archive-Level Validation
Validation performed across all files in an archive, checking for duplicate entity IDs, broken cross-references, and undefined vocabulary types. Generates both errors (hard failures) and warnings (soft failures).
See Also: Validation Levels
Archive-Owned Vocabularies
Controlled vocabulary definitions owned by each archive, allowing archives to customize and extend type systems while maintaining validation and consistency. Vocabulary files are identified by their top-level keys (e.g., event_types, place_types) and can be placed anywhere in the archive, though vocabularies/ is the conventional directory.
See Also: Archive-Owned Vocabularies
Assertion
A discrete, evidence-backed claim about a person, event, place, or relationship. Assertions separate conclusions from evidence, allowing multiple claims about the same fact with different supporting evidence.
See Also: Assertion Entity
C
Citation
A specific reference to a location within a source document, including locator information and optional transcription. Citations link evidence to assertions.
See Also: Citation Entity
Conflicting Evidence Resolution
The process of evaluating multiple sources with different conclusions and determining which to accept based on quality and corroboration.
Confidence Level
An assessment of how certain a conclusion is based on available evidence. Common levels include: high, medium, low. Disputed conclusions — where sources conflict — are tracked via the assertion status field rather than as a confidence level.
See Also: Confidence Levels Vocabulary, Assertion → status
Corroboration
Supporting evidence from multiple independent sources that agree on a conclusion.
Calendar Prefix
An optional prefix on a DateString indicating the calendar system: JULIAN, HEBREW, or FRENCH_R, or an underscore-prefixed extension calendar such as _ROMAN. Gregorian is the default (no prefix). Imported from GEDCOM calendar escape sequences (e.g., @#DJULIAN@).
See Also: Non-Gregorian Calendar Dates
Cross-Reference
A reference from one entity to another entity in the archive (e.g., event referencing a place, assertion referencing a citation). Cross-references are validated to ensure they point to existing entities.
See Also: Reference Integrity
D
Date Keywords
Keywords used in GENEALOGIX date formats to express uncertainty or ranges: ABT (about), BEF (before), AFT (after), BET (between), FROM, TO, CAL (calculated), EST (estimated from another event's date), INT (interpreted). Can be combined with calendar prefixes (e.g., JULIAN ABT 1731). The separate BCE era suffix marks a Gregorian or Julian date before the common era (e.g., ABT 0560 BCE); see the Date Format Standard.
See Also: Date Format Standard
Derivative Evidence
Copies, transcriptions, or compilations of original evidence.
Direct Evidence
Evidence that explicitly states the fact you're trying to prove without requiring inference.
Directory Structure
Common organizational pattern for GENEALOGIX files (not required). Files can be organized in any structure. Common patterns include:
persons/,relationships/,events/, etc. - Dedicated directories per entity type (recommended for collaboration)- Single file - All entities in one
.glxfile (good for small archives) - Hybrid - Mix of directories and multi-entity files based on logical groupings
E
Entity
A typed record in a GENEALOGIX archive representing a person, event, place, relationship, source, citation, repository, assertion, media file, research log, or study.
See Also: Entity Types
Entity ID
A unique identifier for each entity, used as the YAML map key. Format: 1-64 alphanumeric characters with hyphens. Can be descriptive (john-smith-1850) or random (a1b2c3d4).
See Also: ID (Identifier), ID Format Standards
Existential Assertion
An assertion with only a subject and evidence — no property, value, or participant. It asserts that the subject entity exists, backed by the cited sources. Useful during early research phases when evidence establishes an entity's existence but specific property values have not yet been determined.
See Also: Assertion Entity - Existential Assertions, Core Concepts - Existential Assertions
Event
A discrete occurrence in time and place such as birth, marriage, death, baptism, or burial. Events have participants, dates, places, and descriptions. Note: attributes like occupation are represented as temporal properties on Person entities, not as events. Residence can be either a temporal person property (for simple place references) or a residence event (when participants, dates, or detailed evidence are needed).
See Also: Event Entity
Event Type
Classification of life events including birth, marriage, death, baptism, burial, military service, immigration, naturalization, etc. Note: attributes like occupation are temporal properties on Person entities, not events. Residence can be modeled as either a person property or an event.
See Also: Event Types Vocabulary
Evidence Chain
The complete path from physical repository through source and citation to genealogical assertion. A complete chain includes repository → source → citation → assertion.
See Also: Evidence Chain
Evidence Evaluation
The process of assessing source quality, analyzing content, and determining reliability for genealogical conclusions.
Evidence Hierarchy
Classification system for evaluating evidence quality, including dimensions such as primary vs secondary, direct vs indirect, and original vs derivative evidence.
Evidence Integration
The process of combining evidence from multiple sources and resolving conflicts through Git merge operations.
F
Feature Branch
A Git branch used for developing new features or researching specific topics in isolation.
Fields
Structured components within properties that break down complex values into named parts (e.g., name property has fields: given, surname, prefix, suffix).
See Also: Structured Properties
File-Level Validation
Validation performed on individual GLX files, checking for valid YAML syntax, proper entity type keys, schema compliance, and properly formatted entity IDs.
See Also: Validation Levels
Fuzzy Date
A date with imprecision or uncertainty, such as "about 1850" or "between 1880 and 1890". GENEALOGIX supports fuzzy dates through date keywords.
See Also: Date Format Standard, Approximate Date
G
GEDCOM
The GEnealogical Data COMmunication format (5.5.1 and 7.0) used by most genealogy software for data exchange. glx import converts GEDCOM into a GLX archive and glx export converts back; each entity specification carries a GEDCOM Mapping table showing how its fields correspond to GEDCOM tags.
See Also: Migration from GEDCOM
GENEALOGIX (GLX)
An open standard for version-controlled family archives using Git-native workflows, human-readable YAML files, and evidence-first data modeling.
Git Workflow
The process of using Git version control for collaborative genealogy research, including branching strategies, merge conflict resolution, and evidence integration.
.glx Extension
The file extension used for all GENEALOGIX entity files.
H
Hard Failure
A validation error that must be fixed before the archive is considered valid. Examples include broken entity references, duplicate IDs, and undefined vocabulary types.
See Also: Archive-Level Validation
I
ID (Identifier)
A unique identifier for each entity, used as the map key in YAML. Format: 1-64 alphanumeric characters with hyphens. Compared case-insensitively, so Person-A and person-a collide and only one may exist.
Examples:
person-a1b2c3d4- random hex formatperson-john-smith- descriptive formatevent-birth-1850place-leedsabc12345- simple format (no prefix)
Note: Examples use prefixes (e.g.,
person-) for readability. Prefixes are not required.See Also: ID Format Standards, Entity ID
Indirect Evidence
Evidence that requires interpretation or additional information to support a conclusion.
Information Types
Standard vocabulary (information_types) backing the information_type source property. Following Evidence Explained, classifies the information a source conveys by the informant's relationship to the event: primary (firsthand), secondary (secondhand), indeterminate (origin unknown). At the source level this records the predominant or default quality; because Evidence Explained treats information as a property of each item, fact-level variation is better expressed per item. There is no standard citation property for this yet, so an archive needing per-fact classification extends citation_properties with a custom property (vocabulary_type: information_types); standardizing it is tracked in #988. Archives may extend with custom values.
See Also: Information Types Vocabulary, Source Entity — Source Classification
L
Legal Statuses
Standard vocabulary (legal_statuses) backing the legal_status relationship property. Distinguishes forms of coerced labor on enslavement relationships: chattel, indentured, debt_bondage, apprenticeship. Archives may extend with custom values.
See Also: Legal Statuses Vocabulary, Relationship Entity
Living
A non-temporal boolean person property that opts a person into export-time privacy filters (glx export --privatize-living). true forces redaction, false opts out of the date-based heuristic, and absence lets the heuristic decide. GLX-specific; never written to GEDCOM.
See Also: Person Entity - Living
Locator
A specific reference to a location within a source document, such as page number, entry number, film number, or URL.
M
Map Key
The YAML map key used to identify entities. In GENEALOGIX, entity IDs serve as map keys in the entity type collections (persons, events, etc.).
See Also: Entity ID
Media
Supporting files such as photos, documents, audio recordings, or videos that provide evidence or context for genealogical assertions.
See Also: Media Entity
MIME Type
Media type identifier (e.g., "image/jpeg", "application/pdf") that specifies the format of a media file.
Multi-File Archive
An archive organization strategy where each entity is stored in a separate file, recommended for collaborative projects due to better Git diff granularity and merge conflict resolution.
See Also: One Entity Per File
Multi-Value Property
A property that can have multiple values, either as a simple list or as temporal values with associated dates (e.g., multiple occupations or residences over time).
See Also: Temporal Property
N
Negative Evidence
A documented search that did not find the expected record, which itself constitutes evidence. Required by the Genealogical Proof Standard's "reasonably exhaustive search" criterion. In GLX, modeled via the ResearchLog entity with Search entries whose result is not_found.
See Also: ResearchLog, Search
O
Original Evidence
First-hand, eyewitness accounts or documents created at the time of the event.
P
Participant
A person involved in an event or relationship with a specific role such as subject, witness, officiant, parent, or spouse. Written as a person reference plus an optional role, properties, and notes.
Participant Assertion
An assertion whose participant field (instead of property/value) makes a claim about a specific person's involvement in an event or relationship — e.g., that a witness was present, or that a child belongs to a family. Participant assertions allow evidence to be attached directly to who was involved, independent of other claims about the event or relationship.
Participant Role
The specific function a person has in an event or relationship (e.g., bride, groom, witness, officiant; spouse, parent, child). Each role's applies_to in the vocabulary states whether it is valid on events, relationships, or both; an unknown role is a validation error.
See Also: Participant Roles Vocabulary
Per-Participant Properties
Properties attached to an individual participant within an event or relationship (rather than to the event/relationship as a whole) — e.g., age at marriage, legal status, or marital state at time of the census. Per-participant properties are validated against the event_properties or relationship_properties vocabulary depending on context.
Person
An individual human being with biographical information including name, dates, places, and relationships.
See Also: Person Entity
Place
A geographic location with hierarchical organization, including coordinates, alternative names, and type classification.
See Also: Place Entity
Place Type
Classification of geographic locations including country, county, city, parish, cemetery, church, etc.
See Also: Place Types Vocabulary
Primary Evidence
Information created at the time of the event by someone with direct knowledge (birth certificates, contemporary letters).
Principal
The canonical participant role for the primary person in an event (the child at a birth, the deceased at a death). subject is an accepted synonym; tooling treats the two as equivalent, and the specification's examples use subject.
See Also: Participant Roles Vocabulary
Property
A vocabulary-defined attribute of an entity (e.g., sex, occupation, residence, gender). Properties are defined in property vocabularies and used in the properties field of entities.
See Also: Property Vocabularies
Property Vocabulary
A special vocabulary type that defines available properties for each entity type, including property names, data types, whether they're temporal, and whether they have structured fields.
See Also: Property Vocabularies
Provenance
The complete history of how information came to be known, including source attribution, chain of custody, author identification, and research context.
Q
QUAY
GEDCOM quality indicator (0-3 scale) on a source citation. It is not mapped to assertion confidence; on import the value is preserved as a GEDCOM QUAY: n note on the citation.
See Also: Citation Entity - GEDCOM Mapping
R
Reference Integrity
The requirement that all entity references (person IDs, place IDs, etc.) must point to existing entities.
Reference Type
A property value type that indicates the value is an entity ID reference rather than a literal value. Reference types specify which entity collection the reference points to (persons, places, events, etc.).
See Also: Reference Types
Relationship
A connection between people such as parent-child, marriage, adoption, or other family/social connections.
See Also: Relationship Entity
Relationship Type
Classification of connections between people. Standard keys include parent_child (plus biological_parent_child, adoptive_parent_child, foster_parent_child), marriage, civil_union, common_law_marriage, partner, sibling, guardian, godparent, enslavement, and possibly_same_person.
See Also: Relationship Types Vocabulary
Repository
A physical or digital archive, library, church, or institution that holds genealogical sources.
See Also: Repository Entity
Required Fields
Varies by entity type. Required fields by entity: title (Source, Study), name (Place, Repository), uri (Media), source (Citation), type and participants (Event, Relationship), subject plus at least one evidence reference (Assertion), entity ID for everything. Person has no required content fields beyond the map-key ID. See individual entity specifications for details.
Research Branch
A Git branch dedicated to investigating a specific research question or time period.
Research Notes
Documented analysis and decision-making process for genealogical conclusions, including conflicting evidence resolution and future research plans.
ResearchLog
First-class entity that records research investigations: an objective, a status, and an embedded list of Search entries documenting every query performed (including searches that found nothing). Backs the Genealogical Proof Standard requirement for a "reasonably exhaustive search" by making negative evidence machine-readable.
See Also: ResearchLog Entity, Search, Negative Evidence
Research Log Status
Lifecycle state of a ResearchLog, validated against the research_log_status_types vocabulary. Standard values: open, in_progress, complete, blocked.
See Also: Research Log Status Types Vocabulary
S
Search
A single query performed during a research investigation, embedded as a sub-entity within a ResearchLog. Records the repository, source, or free-form collection searched, the date, the query, the result (see Search Result), and — when something was located — the citation produced.
See Also: ResearchLog Entity, Negative Evidence
Search Result
Outcome of a Search within a ResearchLog. One of: found, not_found, inconclusive, partial, not_searched. Backed by the standard search_result_types vocabulary.
See Also: ResearchLog Entity
Schema
JSON Schema definitions that specify the structure, validation rules, and data types for each GENEALOGIX entity type.
See Also: Schema Reference
Schema Compliance
Conformance to JSON Schema definitions that specify valid structure and data types for each entity.
Secondary Evidence
Information created later, often compiled from primary sources (published indexes, compiled genealogies).
Single-File Archive
An archive organization strategy where all entities are stored in a single GLX file, recommended for personal research and small family trees.
See Also: Single File Archive
Soft Failure
A validation warning that indicates a potential issue but doesn't prevent the archive from being valid. Examples include unknown properties not defined in property vocabularies.
See Also: Archive-Level Validation
Source
An original document, record, publication, or material containing genealogical information.
See Also: Source Entity
Source Analysis
Examining original documents for content, context, and credibility to extract genealogical information.
Source Nature
Standard vocabulary (source_natures) backing the source_nature source property. Following Evidence Explained, classifies a source by how it was produced relative to the event it documents: original (first-recorded form), derivative (copy, abstract, transcription, or index of an earlier source), authored (a work synthesizing other sources). Independent of the information_type axis. Archives may extend with custom values.
See Also: Source Natures Vocabulary, Source Entity — Source Classification
Source Type
Classification of original materials including vital_record, census, church_register, newspaper, correspondence, probate, gravestone, etc.
See Also: Source Types Vocabulary
Structural Validation
Checking that files are valid YAML, have proper entity type keys at the top level, and pass JSON Schema validation.
Structured Property
A property with structured fields that break down complex values into named components. The value field preserves the original form while fields provide structured access.
See Also: Structured Properties
Study
A formal declaration of the scope of a research project within an archive — for example a One Place Study, One Name Study, family reconstruction, or brick-wall investigation. A Study collects the places, sources, and date range that bound the project so tooling can report coverage and progress. GLX-native; no GEDCOM equivalent.
See Also: Study Entity
Study Status
Lifecycle state of a Study, validated against the study_statuses vocabulary. Standard values: active, paused, completed, abandoned.
See Also: Study Statuses Vocabulary
Study Type
Classification of a Study, validated against the study_types vocabulary. Standard values: one_place_study, one_name_study, family_reconstruction, descendancy_study, ancestry_study, brick_wall, other.
See Also: Study Types Vocabulary
Status (Assertion)
The research verification state of an assertion, independent of confidence. Common values include proven (verified through primary evidence), speculative (hypothesis needing further research), disputed (sources conflict, resolution unclear), disproven (evidence contradicts the assertion), and unresearched (no search has been conducted yet — tracks research gaps). Free-text; archives may use any labels.
See Also: Assertion Entity - Status
Subject
In assertions, the typed reference to the entity the assertion is about. The subject field specifies both the entity type and entity ID.
See Also: Assertion Entity
T
Typed Reference
A reference that specifies both the entity type and entity ID, used in assertion subjects (e.g., person: person-john-smith rather than just person-john-smith).
Temporal Consistency
Validation checks that verify chronological plausibility of dates across related entities — for example, death before birth, parent younger than child, or marriage before birth. Temporal consistency issues generate warnings (not errors) because fuzzy dates and data-entry errors are common in genealogical records.
See Also: Validation Levels
Temporal Existential Assertion
An existential assertion (one with no property/value, asserting only that the subject existed) that carries a date field to specify when the subject existed — for example, "this person was alive in 1850." Useful when evidence supports existence at a point in time without establishing any other fact.
Temporal Property
A property that can hold multiple values, with or without dates. Temporal properties support dated lists (values that change over time), undated lists (multiple values without known dates, e.g., occupations from an obituary), or a single value.
Transcription
The text content of a source document, especially when the original is not directly accessible or when specific text is relevant to an assertion.
V
Validation
The process of checking GENEALOGIX files for syntax correctness, schema compliance, reference integrity, and structural consistency using the glx validate command.
Value
The specific data or content of a property in an assertion (e.g., "1850-01-15" for a birth date, "blacksmith" for an occupation).
Value Type
The data type specification for a property value: value_type (string, date, integer, boolean), reference_type (an entity ID from a named collection), or vocabulary_type (a key from a named vocabulary). Exactly one of the three is declared per property.
See Also: Data Types, Property Definition Structure
Vocabulary Type
A property attribute (vocabulary_type: sex_types, gender_types, legal_statuses, source_natures, information_types) constraining the property's values to the keys of a vocabulary. Unlike structural type fields, an out-of-vocabulary value on such a property is a warning, not an error.
See Also: Vocabulary Validation
Vocabularies
Controlled lists of valid types and categories used throughout a GENEALOGIX archive. Conventionally stored in the vocabularies/ directory, but can be placed in any .glx file.
See Also: Vocabularies, Standard Vocabularies
W
WGS84
World Geodetic System 1984 - standard coordinate system used for geographic coordinates in GENEALOGIX.
Y
YAML
YAML Ain't Markup Language - the human-readable data serialization format used for all GENEALOGIX entity files. Features include indentation-based structure, support for complex data types, and comments.