Grouping identity records to generate candidate lists to use in an entity and relationship resolution process

A method, comprising:

• receiving a plurality of identity records, wherein the identity records provide attributes of entities, wherein the identity records may provide different or same values for the attributes;
• grouping the received identity records into a group of identity records;
• generating a composite query on values for selected attributes of the identity records in the group;
• applying the composite query to an entity database to obtain composite results of entity records in the entity database matching the attribute values of the composite query;
• for the identity records in the group, performing an individual query on attributes of one of the identity records against the composite results of the entity records to determine a candidate list of the entity records from the entity database for the identity record;
• for the identity records in the group, applying resolution rules to determine the entity records in the determined candidate list that are related to one of the identity records in the group according to the resolution rules;
• and
• storing entity relationship information on the determined entity records that are related to the identity records.