A web-based family lineage tracking and management system : a case study of Ekadu family Odukurun village Soroti city.
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Date
2026
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Busitema University
Abstract
The preservation of ancestral lineage, generational trees, and localized cultural heritage faces severe structural degradation within the modern digital landscape. This crisis is vividly evident within the Ekadu Family situated in Odukurun Village, Soroti City, and Eastern Uganda. Traditional practices relying entirely on unrecorded oral histories, loose-leaf physical journals, and memory-based lineages are increasingly fragile, exposing historical records to the permanent risk of extinction through environmental hazards such as rain, fire, and termite infestation.
This research project designed, implemented, and empirically validated a secure, scalable Web-Based Lineage Tracking System specifically tailored to digitize historical records, maps, and intergenerational connections. Employing a mixed-methods case study, the researcher gathered critical technical and sociocultural requirements from a sample of 10 family members. The study identified that while 10% of participants currently lack household smartphone access, there is a profound demand for modernization, with 90% ranking a centralized web platform as highly necessary to protect decaying records.
The application backend architecture was constructed utilizing modular PHP scripts tied to an optimized, self-referencing relational MySQL database engine (ekadu_family) to manage complex "house unit" and multi-wife lineage structures. The frontend interface was engineered using mobile-first Bootstrap 5 style sheets and dynamic JavaScript. Rigorous User Acceptance Testing (UAT) yielded high performance benchmarks, confirming the system's ability to provide a "single source of truth." The findings conclusively demonstrate that implementing accessible, localized web database solutions provides a highly reliable paradigm for archiving indigenous lineage lines and enhancing organizational solidarity. It is recommended that the administrative leadership of the Ekadu family enforces the structured digitization of all remaining ancestral documentation to capitalize on the system's long-term operational resilience.
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Undergraduate research report
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Egadu, P. (2026). A web-based family lineage tracking and management system : a case study of Ekadu family Odukurun village Soroti city. [Unpublished undergraduate research report]. Busitema University.