General information

Extract from Dictionary of Irish Biography

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Date Information

Historical dates are not always recorded with the same level of certainty as modern biographical information. For many individuals, particularly those who lived in earlier periods, exact birth and death dates are unknown.

The Knowledge Graph typically displays a single date range for each individual. This range represents the broadest period during which the person is known, or can reasonably be inferred, to have lived or been active.

This date range should not always be understood as a confirmed lifespan.

Where precise birth and death dates are known, the range reflects those dates.

Where evidence is limited, the range for a given person is approximate. An approximate date range is known as a floruit (fl.) This term, derived from Latin, indicates the period of time in which a person ‘flourished’. In the Knowledge Graph, it is used to indicate the broadest period during which a person is known to have been active, particularly when life dates are unknown.

Floruits may be derived from:

  • Documentary references
  • Known periods of activity or office-holding
  • Expert inference from contextual evidence

Where more detailed dating information is available, it is displayed in the General Informational panel located on individual entity pages.

This may include:

  • Date of Birth
  • Date of Death

These categories are used where birth or death dates are known with reasonable certainty.

Where a single date appears for dates of birth or death, this may be interpreted as a confirmed date.

Where a date range appears in these fields, it indicates that an individual was born or died at some point within this date range.

Glossary of Terms

    A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a unique identifier for accessing the specific resource on the web.

    Dictionary of Irish Biography (DIB) is an authoritative source for biographical information on Irish figures.

    Wikidata is a free, collaborative knowledge base that links structured data across various databases.

    Refers to the historical time period relevant to the individual or resource.

    Alternative spellings, transliterations, or different forms of a person's name found in historical records.

    The estimated period during which the individual or entity was active, typically expressed as a range using 'c.' to indicate approximate dates (e.g., c. 1400 – 1475).

    The earliest known date when the individual or entity was active.

    The latest known date when the individual or entity was active.

    The entity responsible for contributing the information or data.

    The record with related contextual information.

    The equivalent place in a different time period.

    Specifies the larger administrative or geographic area to which the entity belongs.

    Provides a link to the places entry on the Logainm database, which contains official Irish place names and their meanings.

    Directs to the Townlands.ie page for detailed information about the specific place.

    Links to the entity's page on DBpedia, a structured dataset derived from Wikipedia, offering detailed semantic information.

    Points to the entity's entry in the FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) database, used for indexing and subject classification.