A system for building an online genealogical repository using a computer network, the system comprising:
- a computer having a processor and a memory coupled to the processor;
- a database residing on a storage medium in communication with the processor;
- the memory having computer-readable instructions stored therein, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform the operations of:
- (I) form a surname workspace in the database in response to receipt of a surname over the network selected by a surname workspace creator, the surname workspace comprising a descendent-sequence tree structure beginning with a name of an ancient ancestor identified by the surname workspace creator, (ii) define in the database a surname workspace administrator, (iii) define in the database members of a surname workgroup for the surname workspace, (iv) define update rights to the descendent-sequence tree structure in the database for each member of the surname workgroup as determined by the surname workspace administrator, the update rights being one of provisional update rights and immediate update rights, (v) receive descendent information submitted by the members of the surname workgroup over the computer network, (vi) populate the descendent-sequence tree structure in the database without review by the surname workspace administrator based upon descendent information submitted by members of the surname workgroup having immediate update rights, (vii) provisionally populate the descendent-sequence tree structure in the database based upon descendent information submitted by members of the surname workgroup having provisional update rights such that the provisional updates remain hidden from view of other users until an after-the-fact review is performed by the surname workspace administrator, (viii) process the descendent information submitted by the members of the surname workgroup to define data quality levels for the descendent information, the data quality levels comprising a high quality level and a low quality level, wherein data in the high quality level is restricted to descendent information supported by source documents, (ix) improve a data quality level of descendent information from a lower one of the data quality levels to a higher one of the data quality levels through a semi-automated process to find source documents, wherein the semi-automated process utilizes a web crawler that searches third-party websites for source documents, the semi-automated process linking descendent information to applicable source documents found on the third-arty websites, (x) improve a data quality level of descendent information from a lower one of the data quality levels to a higher one of the data quality levels through one of the members of the surname workgroup manually linking descendent information to source documents on third-party websites, (xi) provide a search creation interface to a user on a remote computer that allows the user to define a search request of the descendent information and select one of the data quality levels for restricting search results in accordance with the selected data quality level, and (xii) return search results to the user on the remote computer, wherein the search results are restricted in accordance with the selected data quality level.