Obsidian Mastery for Professional Genealogy
Architecting Genealogical Metadata Schemas
Schema as Architecture
For any large-scale genealogical project, metadata isn't just descriptive; it's structural. Treating your YAML schema as an architectural blueprint is the difference between a searchable research database and a digital junk drawer. The primary challenge is translating the narrative, evidence-based style of source citation, particularly the standards set by Evidence Explained, into a rigid, machine-readable format without losing critical nuance.
The key is to atomize the citation. Instead of a single, long citation string, we deconstruct it into its constituent parts. This allows for powerful, faceted queries later. For instance, you can query all sources from a specific repository, all documents created by a particular clerk, or all probate records within a given date range. This level of granularity is impossible with monolithic citation strings.
# Optimized for Evidence Explained (EE) Standards
---
source:
master_title: "Rio Grande County, Colorado, Deed Records"
series_title: "Deed Record, vol. 42"
page_or_item: "p. 234, Byron W. Betley, affidavit"
publication_info: "1914; imaged from FHL microfilm 1667355, item 3"
repository:
name: "Family History Library"
location: "Salt Lake City, Utah"
website: "familysearch.org"
citation_full: "Rio Grande County, Colorado, Deed Records, vol. 42, p. 234, Byron W. Betley, affidavit, 1914; imaged from FHL microfilm 1667355, item 3; Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah."
doc:
type: "Affidavit"
eventDate: 1914-06-20
principals:
- "[[Byron W. Betley]]"
location:
county: "Rio Grande County"
state: "Colorado"
country: "USA"
quality: 3 # 1-Original, 2-Derivative(image), 3-Derivative(transcript)
---
Document Properties
Beyond the citation itself, the content of the document must be structured. Each piece of evidence is a collection of facts, dates, people, and places. Defining a consistent set of properties for different document types (e.g., census, will, deed) is essential. A census record needs fields for household, age, and birthplace, while a will requires testator, heirs, and witnesses.
| Property | Type | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
docType | Select | Controlled vocabulary (Will, Deed, Census) prevents typos. |
eventDate | Date | Allows for chronological sorting and filtering. Use ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD). |
principals | Link[] | A list of wikilinks to person notes. Supports multi-value. |
associates | Link[] | Witnesses, neighbors, etc. Critical for cluster research. |
location | Object | Nested properties for county, state, etc., enable geographic queries. |
repository | Link | A single wikilink to a repository note. Standardizes repository info. |
This structured approach transforms your research notes from static documents into a dynamic, queryable knowledge base. You can begin to ask complex questions of your data, like "Show me all land deeds in Essex County, Massachusetts, between 1680 and 1700 where a member of the Smith family was a witness."
Enforcing Consistency
A schema is only useful if it's consistently applied. For high-volume research, manual entry is prone to error. This is where plugins like and MetaBind become indispensable for an advanced workflow. Metadata Menu allows you to define a schema for your vault, specifying property types (e.g., Date, Link, Select from list) and assigning them to specific folders or notes with a certain tag. It acts as a linter for your metadata, ensuring every entry conforms to the predefined structure.
MetaBind then takes this a step further by allowing you to create interactive fields directly within the note's body that are tied to the s properties. You can create a date picker in the note that writes to the eventDate field, or a text input that modifies the abstract field. This combination creates a robust system where the schema is defined once and then enforced through a user-friendly interface during note creation and editing. The result is perfectly structured data, every time, ready for complex queries.
The power of this system lies in its ability to handle multi-value fields gracefully. A deed may have multiple grantors, and a will can have many witnesses. By defining these properties in your schema as lists (e.g.,
witnesses:followed by indented- [[Person A]]), you can capture these one-to-many relationships cleanly.
When configured in Metadata Menu, these list properties can be managed through a simple interface, allowing you to add or remove linked person notes without manually formatting the YAML. This preserves data integrity and simplifies the process of network analysis, a cornerstone of advanced genealogical methodology.
What is the primary benefit of "atomizing" a source citation into multiple YAML properties (e.g., repository, clerk, date) instead of using a single citation string?
In the context of a large-scale genealogical project, what is the main function of the Metadata Menu plugin?
By architecting a robust and enforceable schema, you elevate your research from a collection of notes to an interconnected, analyzable dataset.