Inspiration

Here are presented the results of the enquiry carried out by Herotodus of Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the traces of history from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks…

Traces™ has the same purpose: to preserve the historical record of humankind and prevent it from being erased by time.

Herotodus is most often criticized for his lack of research, with several modern scholars doubting he visited all the places he speculates about. Modern genealogy databases also suffer from this problem; decades of unrestricted additions to the databases with no more evidence behind them than hearsay have resulted in their filling with sketchy, unreliable data.

Traces™ aims to remedy this situation with a comprehensive system of annotations intending to document the source of every fact entered into the database. This is not to say that the general public is discouraged from contributing to Traces™; anybody can suggest a new fact to the Traces™ database, even a new annotation. These suggestions are next verified by scholars. If research indicates the fact is reasonably supported by evidence, the fact can be moved from "suggestion" status to "accepted" status.