How about in the case of an amendment for adoption or sex change? Would that show in the index and what would it show?
It would depend upon how the database designer modeled the data and constructed the tables and indexes. There are different types of databases, distinguished from each other by the manner in which the data is accessed.
Generally speaking, each database table is a set of like records, such as a list of all new vehicles at an automobile dealership. An index is a list of “keys” that identify (or point to) particular records in the corresponding database table.
An index key allows you to retrieve (access) a record or set of records from the corresponding database table. So when the data modeler creates the index for a table, he attempts to determine how the records will ultimately be accessed by the end user so he can determine what “keys” to create in the index.
For our discussion, let’s go with an automobile dealership database. It might have one table for new cars, one for used cars, one for salesmen, and one for sales data. (That’s very simplified for discussion purposes.)
Each of the above tables will have a corresponding index. In a table’s index, there will be at least one “key” but, more likely, multiple “keys.”
Here’s what a New Car record (in the New Car table) might look like.
Year: 2010
Make: Ford
Model: F-150
VIN: 1AB23CD4E567890
Color: Red
MSRP: $35,000.00
Cost: $27,500.00
Engine: V8
(And various other atrributes about a vehicle that you might see listed on the invoice sticker ...)
In order to access records in the New Car table, we need at least one key in the New Car index. A unique key would be the VIN (vehicle identification number). The VIN can point to one and only one New Car record.
However, our salesmen might want to see information about all red, 2010, Ford F-150’s. So, we might have a key in the index for “Year+Make+Model+color.” So when we use that key to retrieve records, we’ll get a list of records rather than one record because the information for which we asked is not unique. For discussion purposes, let’s say there are three, red, 2010, Ford F-150’s in stock: one basic model with cloth seats; one extended cab with leather seats; and one regular cab with leather seats.
Now consider the Hawaii vital records database. The data Okubo supplied indicated that there was a marriage table and a birth table. She requested all records in both tables for anyone with the last name “Obama” and the first name “Barack.” The result set (list of records) displayed one record in the marriage table for “Barack Obama Sr.” whose spouse was “Stanley Ann Dunham” and one record from the birth table for “Barack Hussein Obama II” who was a male born on August 4, 1961.
If there were amended birth records for Obama, there would be multiple records in the birth table. The original record is not deleted. An additional record is added to the table with the amended (corrected, changed, updated) information.
Hawaii law requires that the DoH maintain a birth index with the name, gender, and date of birth for every child born in Hawaii. Based on what Okubo supplied, that birth index appears to be an actual table of records not an index of keys. There were no records in that table for “Barry Soetoro” or his sister “Maya.”
If HI included the sex (doubtful), then they would take a black marker and scribble the M out and hand write an F (or F for M). An adoption might or might not be different (every office does things slightly different) but there would be a big scribble over the original birth name. The clerk might try to squeeze in the adoptive name - under the proper alphabetical tab and chronologically between the other babies born before and after him. Or the clerk might enter the adoptive name at the end of that particular alphabetical section. White Out might also have been used, but that can sometimes be scratched off so big black scribbles worked best. So, you see, any changes or amendments would be obvious on the original handwritten index. But pages could be switched out easily if someone had a mind to...