Record linkage is an important process in family history research.  Work with record linkage helps eliminate redundancy in family history research, saving time and improving the accuracy of the records. 

Genealogists are finding that in family history records, single individuals are frequently recorded multiple times. This is often a result of the large number of people engaged in family history work and the fact that historical records often contain minute errors, such as misspellings of names and locations or inaccuracies in dates.  This problem can frustrate efforts to connect individuals across time and makes research less efficient. However, students working with Dr. Giraud-Carrier in the Data Mining Laboratory are finding new ways to determine if two individuals are actually the same person.  This allows genealogists to sync up records, combine their resources, and more efficiently trace family lines. 

The record linkage process developed by Dr. Giraud-Carrier and his students has further implications on the relationships between the dead and the living.  Work with “implicit affinities” analyzes likenesses between individuals and groups of individuals, allowing, for example, a genealogist to discover strange marriage patterns, unusual occupational tendencies, typical life spans, characteristic emigration drifts, and recurring military service in his or her family history.  The patterns and similarities discovered within families cannot only offer new leads info family history research, they can also give significant insights into the preferences, characteristics, and personalities of the living.