Catalogwill

Catalogwill is a hypothetical open-standard framework designed to manage wills, probate records, and related legal documents in digital archives and administrative systems. It provides a common metadata schema, document types, and inter-document relationships to support efficient indexing, retrieval, and long-term preservation.

Concept and scope: The goal is to enable interoperable cataloging across archives, law firms, courts, and personal estate planners. Catalogwill emphasizes privacy and provenance, enabling access controls and audit trails while accommodating sensitive information through role-based permissions and redaction-ready workflows.

Data model and features: Core entities include will, codicil, probate record, executor, beneficiary, asset, and estate. Relationships capture execution dates, validity, amendments, and revocation. The framework supports versioning, hierarchical grouping, and linked identifiers for people, institutions, and assets. It also provides APIs, validation rules, and export formats.

Implementation and use: While not an official standard, catalogwill has informed discussions about interoperability in digital archives and probate management. Potential adopters include archival repositories, judiciary systems, law firms, and genealogical organizations seeking consistent metadata and search capabilities.

Relation to standards: Catalogwill aligns with general archival metadata practices such as Dublin Core and PREMIS for preservation, and interoperates with identity and asset registries to facilitate cross-system search and long-term access.