{"id":3097,"date":"2022-04-16T07:30:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-16T07:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cromarville.wordpress.com\/?p=3097"},"modified":"2023-05-12T18:05:12","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T22:05:12","slug":"genealogical-data-and-visual-design-i-metaphors-in-visualization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamcromar.com\/cromarbaile\/2022\/04\/16\/genealogical-data-and-visual-design-i-metaphors-in-visualization\/","title":{"rendered":"Genealogical data and visual design I: metaphors in visualization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\n
\"\"
Portion of a genealogical “tree” chart tracing the monarchy from Adam and Eve, from page 63 of Mostyn 88, an illuminated manuscript attributed to Welsh poet Gutun Owain, ca. 1488-98. Some of the earliest data visualization involved genealogy \u2014 and it also happened to be some of the earliest political propaganda. | Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru \u2013 The National Library of Wales<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Will they tell your story? Time<\/em>
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? Time<\/em>
Will they tell your story? Time<\/em>
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?<\/p>\n\u2014 Lin-Manuel Miranda<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Genealogy is data…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

… but what does this data do? Well, for starters, it can tell your story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data, alas, does not willfully do so. Left by itself, it simply sits, opaque as mud. We have to know how to condition it, turn it into moldable clay, pound it or pinch it or turn it into a legible form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genealogical data is superficially perceived as interesting only to those persons for whom it is personally relevant. This was certainly my position on the topic, if I even thought about at all it before I caught the genealogy bug. As I continue to develop a dataset in the Cromar-Robb line and the descendancy study for Peter Cromar 1690, I now understand that when data reaches a certain threshold, covers a sufficient territory and timespan, it transcends the compilation of raw facts. Data becomes a language of pattern, an an eloquent expression of social, economic, ethnographic, political, and religious realities, among the vast array of historical forces that define our collective experience. Patterns in rich, complex data can foster an entirely different way to look at history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n