Cemetery Prototype Database :: Database

This prototype database was designed to meet the general needs of users from a range of different backgrounds in relation to cemeteries and graveyards. The scenario is described as follows: A consortium of international archaeological and historical societies has collaborated in funding a multidisciplinary database of international historical graveyards whose history goes back at least 100 years. As the database will be used for research as well as town-planning by a wide variety of people, including historians, local councils, genealogists, sociologists and epidemiologists, it is anticipated that it will include not only information about the graveyards themselves, but also the buildings, individual gravestones and the records of people buried there. [Emphasis added] Key words and phrases (highlighted) were used to determine the appropriate entities and their attributes, and to help determine the kinds of queries that might be useful for key stakeholders. This database will serve a diverse range users, each with different needs. Prior to constructing this database, I created a list of questions that I suspected may have been of interest to a given stakeholder, and then ensured that my database could answer them. I have listed a sample of these questions in Appendix I and have provided relevant queries to demonstrate the usefulness of the database. Entities From the scenario described above, I have determined that the following main entities are the most appropriate for a relational database: cemeteries, burial plots, burial records, monuments, buildings, and inscriptions. Each main entity and its significant attributes will be described below; however, a full list of attributes can be found in the appendix. Cemeteries and graveyards Each cemetery or graveyard will exist in the database as a distinct entity, and all other entities can be traced back to their relevant cemetery. Curl (1999) defines a cemetery as: 'a burial ground, especially a large landscaped park or ground laid out expressly for the deposition or interment of the dead, not being a churchyard attached to a place of worship.' Accordingly, a cemetery is not simply a place containing a dead body or bodies, but a defined location specifically intended to be used for burying the dead. While Curl attempts to distinguish a cemetery from a churchyard, my database takes a broader approach and includes all formal burial places (graveyards in general), including those associated with churchyards, burial mounds, and war memorials. As noted by Rugg (2000), cemeteries also 'provide the ability of users to locate a specific grave .