A computer implemented system and method for automated estimation of relationships among a plurality of data elements. The approach includes processing elements of one or more data sets to establish linkage relations among the data records, and then extending the linkage relations based on one or more equivalence relations, stored as linkage data structures. The generated data structures are used for computationally simplifying the data sets by consolidating data records or removing redundancies, such as duplicates, and may be used to yield a compressed data representation or data structure.