1-3.5 Individuals & their merotypes.
In section 1-3.1 we discused the lineage-linked model, perhaps the most obvious of the merotypes of an individual. Other
models that would contain individuals are the document and the event. This particular kind of event, say eventdoc,
contain individuals in certain roles. The document contains the source citation and the eventdoc(s)
that are on record. The document may contain births in a certain place. These are attributes of the document, but we want
to use these events to help identfy the people in them. An individual is the merotype of such identifiers as: 1) names
(including aliases and titles), and 2) vital and other events. These would
be say eventind, which would not include individuals in roles, which associate the principal (or other
person) in a corresponding eventdoc. Typically the principal of a birth or christening eventdoc
has a birth or christening eventind of the same date and place. In the lineage-linked model individuals
also have several relationships to other individuals. The eventind has its type along with its date and
place. This is also the structure of marriage events, say eventfam. Hence the merotype of an event is
a document, a family, or an individual. (Events may also belong to almost any other class of object that has a temporal
beginning and/or end.) The date has a certain precision (on, in, about) along with the day, month, and year (depending on
the calendar) and period of time. So also a place has a certain precision (at, in, near) along with the locality name and
location. It is important to realize that the locality designation is appropriate or not depending on the time period of
the event.
