An archive that shows its sources
Genealogy is a pile of fragile claims. This archive treats every published statement as something that must trace to a named source record — and treats privacy as a design input, not an afterthought.
§1 The situation
Family records scattered across notes, files, and inherited context — and sensitive details that needed a clear boundary before anything could be published at all. The archive had to stay maintainable by one person, part-time, or it would quietly die.
§2 What I did
Modeled source records before presentation pages, so the shape of the system protects the truth of the content. Separated private working notes from public-facing narrative, and built the publishing structure as schema-validated content with static output.
§3 Result
A source-aware structure that can grow without losing trust: evidence, notes, and publishing decisions stay auditable, and future updates follow a pattern instead of a memory.
§4 Difficulty & judgment
The hard calls are about what not to publish. Privacy here isn't a page-level toggle — it's a record-by-record decision, made before the narrative exists, which is the only time it can be made calmly.
§5 Not claimed
Deliberately left unclaimed
- A public link — the archive's audience is family, so this plate describes the system rather than exposing the people in it.
- Genealogical completeness or accuracy beyond what named source records support.
- Scale — record counts aren't the point and aren't published.
§6 The same work, other lenses
- Knowledge systems
- Source-first information architecture where the content structure itself enforces evidence discipline.
- Engineering
- Schema-validated content and static output, chosen for maintainability over features.
- Governance
- Privacy boundaries decided record by record and visible in the publishing workflow.