Patent ID: 8356023

Claim:
A method of building a representation of related individuals, comprising: providing a database of identifying information relating to a plurality of individuals; providing users with access to the database using a computer system; receiving via the computer system first user instructions relating identifying information from the database to a node in a first set of user-created nodes in a first user account, each node in the first set of nodes being associated with an individual; receiving via the computer system second user instructions relating identifying information from the database to a node in a second set of user-created nodes in a second user account, each node in the second set of nodes being associated with an individual; correlating a first node in the first user account to a first node in the second user account, wherein: the correlating is based at least partly on a likelihood that the first node in the first user account and the first node in the second user account both include identifying information associated with the same individual, and the first user account and the second user account are distinct from the database of identifying information; matching the first node in the first user account to the first node in the second user account; providing a user of the first user account with identifying information about a user of the second user account; and notifying the user of the first user account when the identifying information associated with the first node in the second user account changes.