Patent ID: 6934714

Claim:
A method in a computer system for indicating direct and indirect relationships among a plurality of data records in a data repository to a designated record, each record having a plurality of data fields with values, comprising: determining, from the plurality of data records, a set of records that are directly-related to the designated record, such that at least one data field has a common value in the designated data record and in each of the records in the set; using the set of directly-related records, automatically determining from the plurality of data records a potential family of records that includes the set of directly-related records and records that are indirectly related to each other through a plurality of designated data fields; adding the designated record to the potential family of records when it is automatically determined that the designated record is not a duplicate of one of the data records in the potential family of records; and automatically setting an indicator in each of the data records in the potential family of records to indicate a family relationship between the records.