Person Identity

«Person Identity» is a claim type describing basic identifying information about a person, such as their name and aliases. Claims of this type are grouped together with Person Posting (describing ranks and positiongs in different units) and a draft claim type called Person Extra Data (extended biographical information) claims, which creates a fuller dataset on the person’s career in the security and defence forces

Person Identity: Summary of claim attributes

The table below summarises the following dimensions of Person Identity claims:

Attribute label: a human readable label for the attribute

Attribute name: a unique machine-readable name for the attribute, used during data capture

Status: whether the attribute is optional or required in a claim

Data type: the sort of data that can be entered into the field

Conformed name: a standardized name that simplifies attribute use in SFM databases

Attribute label	Attribute name	Status	Data type	Conformed name
Person Identity: Unique Identifier	`::person:id`	required	uuid-string	:claim/about-entity:id
Person Identity: Claim Citation Identifier	`::person:claim:citation:id`	required	strings<->uuids	:claim/citation:ids
Person Identity: Name	`::person:name`	optional	string	:assertion/person:name
Person Identity: Other Names	`::person:other_names`	optional	cell-list	:assertion/person:other-names
Person Identity: Country	`::person:country`	optional	country-iso-string	:assertion/country
Person Identity: Earliest Precise Date	`::person:date-range-precise:first`	optional	string-date<->timestamp	:range-precise/first
Person Identity: Latest Precise Date	`::person:date-range-precise:last`	optional	string-date<->timestamp	:range-precise/last
Person Identity: Earliest Imprecise Date	`::person:date-range-imprecise:first`	optional	string-date<->timestamp	:range-imprecise/first
Person Identity: Latest Imprecise Date	`::person:date-range-imprecise:last`	optional	string-date<->timestamp	:range-imprecise/last
Person Identity: Date range is a Start Date	`::person:date-range:starting?`	optional	YN<->bool	:range/starting?
Person Identity: Date range is an End Date	`::person:date-range:ending?`	optional	YN<->bool	:range/ending/
Person Identity: Research Comments	`::person:claim:comment`	optional	string	:meta/comment
Person Identity: Research Owner	`::person:claim:researcher`	optional	string	:meta/researcher
Person Identity: Research Status	`::person:claim:status`	optional	status	:meta/status

Person Identity: Details of claim attributes

This section contains further information about each attribute, including descriptions, examples of use, and Guidance on use.

Person Identity: Unique Identifier

Attribute name

::person:id

Description

A unique 32 character code assigned to each person in the dataset.

Attribute type

String in UUID format

Status

This attribute is optional.

Example of use

a848de4e-ebeb-49d6-9099-7e68ca3b57fc

Guidance on use

This value is a Universally Unique Indentifier (UUID) generated using a computer program. UUIDs can be created easily using either installable or online tools, for example:

Linux and OSX users: uuidgen command line tool.
On the web: UUID Generator.

The attribute is administrative, providing a reliable way to differentiate between different persons.

The Staff Researcher must generate a unique identifying number for that person and add it to every claim associated with that specific person. This manual, copy-and-paste step is a potential source of error and the Staff Researcher must be careful not to re-use a UUID. As the data are ingested into database systems, claims that share the same UUID in ::unit:id will be aggregated to create a single record for that person.

Person Identity: Claim Citation Identifier

Attribute name

::person:claim:citation:id

Description

A unique 32 character code of a citation from a source that evidences the other attribute(s) in this claim.

Attribute type

String in UUID format

Status

This attribute is required.

Example of use

16d013b5-7073-4446-b22b-46b0edb25632

Guidance on use

All claims require a citation, which is a reference to a specific part of a source (for example a page or paragraph reference). The page on citations provides more information about this evidentiary mechanism.

Person Identity: Name

Attribute name

::person:name

Description

Full name of the person, including given, patronym and surnames.

Attribute type

String

Status

This attribute is optional.

Example of use

Magaji Musa Majia'a

Guidance on use

Different sources will spell the name of a person in different ways, so we choose a name to be a canonical entry for that person. Whenever possible, the canonical entry will contain the most complicated or complete version of a person’s name, even if it has the smallest number of citations. For example Magaji Musa Majia'a will be used instead of Magaji Majiaa. Other names will be placed in the Person Identity: Other Names attribute. Titles, roles, honorifics and other attributes that are more correctly linked to a person’s posting in a unit are recorded in `Person Posting`_ claims.

Person Identity: Other Names

Attribute name

::person:other_names

Description

Other names used to identify a person.

Attribute type

String

Status

This attribute is optional.

Example of use

Virgilio Daniel Méndez Bazan, Virgilio Daniel Mendez Bazán

Guidance on use

Different sources will spell a person’s name in different ways. We choose and record a canonical version of a person’s name in the Person Identity: Name field. All other spellings that we have found are treated as aliases and stored in this field. Titles, roles, honorifics and other attributes that are more correctly linked to a person’s posting in a unit are recorded in `Person Posting`_ claims.

Person Identity: Country

Attribute name

::person:country

Description

Country where a unit that a person is a member of is located.

Attribute type

Text, controlled vocabulary

Status

This attribute is optional.

Example of use

mx

Guidance on use

Values for this field are chosen from the list of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, which can be found (on the ISO website and on Wikipedia. This field does not denote the citizenship or country of origin of a person. Rather, it denotes where a unit they are a member of is located. For example, if 1 Batallón de Infantería is located in Juarez, Mexico, the unit will be assigned a value of mx in the field `Unit Identity: Country`_. Any person who is a member of that unit will be assigned a value of mx in the field Person Identity: Country as well. A person may have multiple entries for Person Identity: Country where our research shows they or a unit they are a member of is deployed to different countries.