erfgoeddatabanken

Erfgoeddatabanken is a term used to describe a databank that collects hereditary and genealogical information. In theory, such a databank aggregates family trees, civil registration data (births, marriages, deaths), and, where available and ethically permissible, genetic and phenotypic information related to inheritance. The concept appears in discussions of research infrastructure, data governance, and historical demography as a centralized repository for kinship, heredity, and population history.

Purpose and scope are to support medical and population genetics research, genealogical inquiries, and demographic studies. A typical erfgoeddatabanken aims to enable linkage between genealogical records and biological data while enabling analyses of inheritance patterns, disease predispositions, and population structure. Access is often framed around privacy, consent, and ethical considerations, with emphasis on data minimization and anonymization for broader research use.

Governance and access are central concerns. Such databanks would normally be hosted by a university, national archive, or health or research agency, with clear policies on data ownership, user authentication, and project approval. Data access might be restricted to approved researchers, with strict controls on re-identification risks and requirements for data security, auditing, and reporting.

Data sources and quality control are important practical aspects. Records may come from civil registries, historical church or civil records, census data, and laboratory-genetic datasets where applicable. Provenance, data lineage, and quality assurance processes are essential to maintain reliability and to document limitations, biases, and uncertainties.

See also: genealogical database, biobank, population genetics, data governance.