People as they are situated in the social structure of families follow a pattern of relationships with their kin. It is possible to use the names and other features of identification of each of a person’s relatives to help identify that person. In record linkage this is called relationship matching. Here are two versions of figure 1: the first illlustrates how the principal individual is situated in two kinds of families: 1) the family created by his parents (familly of orientation), and 2) the family created by the individual and his spouse (family of procreation).
The second is a UML diagram illustrating how the fuller structure implied might be described using more formal PS-rules.
Thus there are three different kinds of records that may be linked. The individual may be supplied with its own unique identifiers. This linkage is illustrated in figure 2.
In order to perform family record linkage the attributes of the respective famillies to be matched are compared. The familly may be supplied with identifiers that relate to it. This linkage is illustrated in figures 3 and 4.
The comparison in figure three resulted in successful family linkage in spite of the disagreement in the identifiers of the child. The two different children are in the same familly of orientation.
The comparison in figure four resulted in unsuccessful family linkage in one case because of the disagreement in the identifiers of the spouse. The two different spouses are in different families of procreation. It also resulted in unsuccessful family linkage in the case where there was disagreement in the identifiers of the principal.
