Place Identification in Historic Sources

Dr. Jesper ZedlitzResearch Group for Communication SystemsDepartment of Computer ScienceChristian-Albrechts-University in Kiel

Agenda

• Problem– Some practical examples– Settlement vs. administrative unit

• An approach– „Genealogisches Ortsverzeichnis“

(historic gazetteer)

• Outlook

Problem: Place identification

Mühlhausen / Pr. Holland

Where on earth is

Problem: Name Change

1936 address book 1941 address book

It's the same municipality.

Problem: Very Small Villages

German WW1 casualty lists page 10181, infantry regiment 347, 12th company

Problem: Very Small Villages

Observations

• We need ...– Unique identification of places– Information about administrative structure

• Sources specify place names.

• What exactly does a place name refer to?

• Example: »… from Schönberg near Kiel«

Settlement vs. Adm. Unit

© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA

Kiel←

Settlement vs. Adm. Unit

Village Schönberg

© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA

Settlement vs. Adm. Unit

Municipality Schönberg

© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA

Settlement vs. Adm. Unit

Parish Schönberg

© OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA

An approach:

Genealogisches Ortsverzeichnis (GOV)

Genealogical gazetteerHistorical

Web Interface

Covered Area

+ USA

+ Canada

+ Australia

Data Model

• Separation of settlements and administrative objects– Example: village ≠ municipality

• We are not the only ones:– Historic sources

• Gemeindelexikon für das Königreich Preußen 1887

• Ortschafts-Verzeichnis für die Provinz Schleswig-Holstein 1890

settlement municipality

Data Model

• Separation of settlements and administrative objects– Example: village ≠ municipality

• We are not the only ones:– Historic sources

• Gemeindelexikon für das Königreich Preußen 1887

• Ortschafts-Verzeichnis für die Provinz Schleswig-Holstein 1890

– Modern systems• Bavarian State Library

• GeoNames

• Wikipedia in Denmark and Poland

Unique Id

• Every object has a unique identifier

Town Kielhttp://gov.genealogy.net/KIEIELJO54BI

German federal state Schleswig-Holsteinhttp://gov.genealogy.net/adm_369010

Church St. Jacobus in Moldenit http://gov.genealogy.net/object_185414

Lighthouse Bülkhttp://gov.genealogy.net/BULURM_W2301

Side note: Lighthouse Bülk

Adreßbuch und Geschäfts-Handbuch für Stadt und Kreis Eckernförde 1897

Geographic Position

• Example Moldenit:

→ Visualization

54.5436°N 9.6158°O

Property: Name

• Multiple languages for one place

• Time specification

ISO-639-2

Barmen-Elberfeld (1929-08-01 - 1930-01-25)

Wuppertal (1930-01-25 -)

Ballum (deu)

Ballum (dan)

Balem (fry)

Property: Population

• for example city of Kiel

• also number of households

Property: Type

• Hierarchical type system– for settlements and administrative units– currently 241 types

• Advantages– Homonym disambiguation– Search for similar types

• Type changes are possible

municipality → town

village → deserted site

Relations

• A variety of „contained in“ relations– political– ecclesiastical– judicial

• Relations are time-specified

• Multiple relations at the same time allowed

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Relations

policital adm. ecclesiastical adm.settlement

Complex Historical Relations

Access

• For human users– Web Interface

• For machines– SOAP-Webservices– Linked Open Data

Linked Open Data

• Every object is available as Linked Open Data, e. g.

http://gov.genealogy.net/SUCORFJO54AI

• Links to other LOD data sources

Linked Open Data

<http://gov.genealogy.net/SUCORFJO54AI> a gov:GovObject ; rdfs:isDefinedBy <http://gov.genealogy.net/SUCORFJO54AI/about.rdf> ; gov:hasPopulation [ a gov:PropertyForObject ; gov:value "8441" ; gov:timeBegin "2004-12-31" ; gov:timeEnd "2004-12-31" ] ; gov:hasName [ a gov:PropertyName ; gov:value "Suchsdorf" ; gov:language "deu" ] ; gov:hasType [ a gov:PropertyType ; gov:type type:55 ; gov:timeEnd "1958" ; gov:source [ a gov:SourceReference ; gov:sourceRef <http://gov.genealogy.net/source_387809> ; gov:note "S. 152" ] ], [ a gov:PropertyType ; gov:type type:54 ; gov:timeBegin "1958" ] ; gov:isPartOf [ a gov:Relation ; gov:ref <http://gov.genealogy.net/object_386988> ; gov:timeEnd "1958-03-31" ], [ a gov:Relation ; gov:ref <http://gov.genealogy.net/KIEIELJO54BI> ; gov:timeBegin "1958-04-01" ] , [ a gov:Relation ; gov:ref <http://gov.genealogy.net/object_1042608> ], [ a gov:Relation ; gov:ref <http://gov.genealogy.net/object_285109> ; gov:source [a gov:SourceReference ; gov:sourceRef <http://gov.genealogy.net/source_387809> ; gov:note "S. 152" ] ] .

Outlook

• Below settlement level– Additional Problem:

streets, street names and addresses have changed

county

municipality

settlement

house

…

Outlook

• Below settlement level– Additional Problem:

streets, street names and addresses have changed

Kiel 1917 Kiel 2015

Thank you for your attention.

Questions?