[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-126385-en":3,"doc-seo-126385-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},126385,962085564549,"Genevieve","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",8,"Research & Report","A Comparison of Rule-based and Supervised Machine Learning Approaches for Record Linkage of Italian Historical Data","Parish and civil records enable reconstruction of historical socio-demographic processes, yet analysis is difficult due to digitization needs and the requirement to link life events across documents without formal identifiers. With growing digitized collections, automated record-linkage methods have become critical. This study compares rule-based and supervised machine learning techniques for linking birth and death records from crowdsourced Italian parish and civil register transcriptions, using hand-linked data as a benchmark and evaluating precision and recall.","A Comparison of Rule-based and Supervised Machine Learning Approaches for Record Linkage of Italian Historical Data  \nBy Saverio Minardi, Suzanne Greco and Nicola Barban  \nTo cite this article: Minardi, S. , Greco, S. , & Barban, N. (2025) . A Comparison of Rule-based and Supervised Machine Learning Approaches for Record Linkage of Italian Historical Data. Historical Life Course Studies, 15, 28–46. [https://doi](https://doi). org/10.51964/hlcs18990  \nHISTORICAL LIFE COURSE STUDIES  \nVOLUME 15  \n2025  \nMISSION STATEMENT  \nHISTORICAL LIFE COURSE STUDIES  \nHistorical Life Course Studies was established within European Historical Population Samples Network (EHPS-Net) . The journal is the primary publishing outlet for research involved in the conversion of existing European and non-European large historical demographic databases into a common format, the Intermediate Data Structure, and for studies based on these databases. The journal publishes both methodological and substantive research articles.  \nMethodological Articles  \nThis section includes methodological articles that describe all forms of data handling involving large historical databases, including extensive descriptions of new or existing databases, syntax, algorithms and extraction programs. Authors are encouraged to share their syntaxes, applications and other forms of software presented in their article, if pertinent.  \nResearch articles  \nThis section includes substantive articles reporting the results of comparative longitudinal studies that are demographic and historical in nature, and that are based on micro-data from large historical databases.  \nHistorical Life Course Studies is a no-fee double-blind, peer-reviewed open-access journal supported by the European Science Foundation, the International Institute of Social History, the European Society of Historical Demography, Radboud University Press, Lund University and HiDO Scientific Research Network Historical Demography. Manuscripts are reviewed by the editors, members of the editorial and scientific boards, and by external reviewers. All journal content is freely available on the [internet at hlcs.nl](internet at hlcs.nl).  \nCo-Editors-In-Chief:  \nJoana Maria Pujadas-Mora (Open University of Catalonia & Center for Demographic Studies, Autonomous University of Barcelona)  \n&  \nPaul Puschmann (Radboud University)  \nAssociate Editors:  \nGabriel Brea-Martinez (Lund University) & Wieke Metzlar (Radboud University)  \nHISTORICAL LIFE COURSE STUDIES  \nVOLUME 15 (2025), 28–46, published 03-06-2025  \nA Comparison of Rule-based and Supervised Machine Learning Approaches for Record Linkage of Italian Historical Data  \nSaverio Minardi University of Bologna  \nSuzanne Greco  \nItal[ianParishRecords.org](ianParishRecords.org), USA  \nNicola Barban  \nUniversity of Bologna  \nABSTRACT  \nParish and civil records are crucial sources for reconstructing historical socio-demographic processes. However, their analysis presents significant challenges, particularly the need to digitize data and link life events across documents that lack formal identifiers. With the growing availability of digitized records, the development and evaluation of automated linkage techniques have become increasingly important. This study compares rule-based and supervised machine learning approaches for linking birth and death records derived from crowdsourced transcriptions of Italian parish and civil registers. Using a set of hand-linked data as a benchmark, we assess the performance of both approaches in terms of precision and recall, under standard conditions and in scenarios where key disambiguating information is missing. Our findings suggest that the machine learning approach outperforms the rule-based method both under standard conditions and when information is incomplete, making it the preferred option when training data are available. Nonetheless, the rule-based method can still achieve high precision when configured with sufficiently strict matchi","cbCaiju5QRqam2A6","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiju5QRqam2A6","pdf",2371695,4,1,21,"English","en",105,"# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Importance of parish and civil records\n## Key challenges and need for record linkage\n# Methods and Evaluation\n## Rule-based approach\n## Supervised machine learning approach\n## Benchmarking with hand-linked data\n# Results\n## Precision and recall under standard and missing-information scenarios\n## Guidance on choosing methods\n# Conclusions and Adaptation","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the document address in historical research?\",\"answer\":\"It addresses how to link life events (birth and death records) across parish and civil documents that lack formal identifiers, especially when data must be digitized from manuscripts.\"},{\"question\":\"How are rule-based and supervised machine learning approaches compared?\",\"answer\":\"The study compares both approaches using a hand-linked dataset as a benchmark and evaluates performance using precision and recall.\"},{\"question\":\"Which approach performs better, and under what conditions?\",\"answer\":\"The machine learning approach outperforms the rule-based method under standard conditions and when key disambiguating information is missing, while the rule-based method can still reach high precision when matching thresholds are sufficiently strict.\"}]","A Comparison of Rule-based and Supervised Machine Learning Approaches for Record Linkage of Italian Historical Data | PDF",1785904788,53,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":29},"a-comparison-of-rule-based-and-supervised-machine-learning-approaches-for-record-linkage-of-italian-historical-data","",{"@graph":37,"@context":86},[38,54,69],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,49,52],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":48},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":50,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":51},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":53,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-comparison-of-rule-based-and-supervised-machine-learning-approaches-for-record-linkage-of-italian-historical-data/126385/",{"url":53,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":42,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-23","2026-08-05",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What problem does the document address in historical research?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"It addresses how to link life events (birth and death records) across parish and civil documents that lack formal identifiers, especially when data must be digitized from manuscripts.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"How are rule-based and supervised machine learning approaches compared?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"The study compares both approaches using a hand-linked dataset as a benchmark and evaluates performance using precision and recall.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"Which approach performs better, and under what conditions?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"The machine learning approach outperforms the rule-based method under standard conditions and when key disambiguating information is missing, while the rule-based method can still reach high precision when matching thresholds are sufficiently strict.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":53,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":53},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,111,116,121,124,129,132,136],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":48,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":112,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":113,"show_sort_weight":114,"slug":115},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":118,"show_sort_weight":119,"slug":120},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},30,"research-report",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":126,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":128},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":130,"show_sort_weight":127,"slug":131},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":133,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":134,"show_sort_weight":133,"slug":135},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":137,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":138,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":139},19,"General","general"]