A Case Study on Record Matching of Individuals in Historical Archives of Indigenous Databases

TL;DR

This paper presents a record matching approach for historical archives of Indigenous peoples in Canada, improving data integration and enabling new historical insights from digitized records from 1800-1920.

Contribution

It introduces a novel record linking method tailored for historical archives and evaluates its effectiveness in connecting records across datasets.

Findings

High precision in record linkage demonstrated

Potential for new historical discoveries confirmed

Effective data integration for Indigenous archives

Abstract

Digitization of historical records has produced a significant amount of data for analysis and interpretation. A critical challenge is the ability to relate historical information across different archives to allow for the data to be framed in the appropriate historical context. This paper presents a real-world case study on historical information integration and record matching with the goal to improve the historical value of archives containing data in the period 1800 to 1920. The archives contain unique information about M\'etis and Indigenous people in Canada and interactions with European settlers. The archives contain thousands of records that have increased relevance when relationships and interconnections are discovered. The contribution is a record linking approach suitable for historical archives and an evaluation of its effectiveness. Experimental results demonstrate potential for discovering historical linkage with high precision enabling new historical discoveries.