A genealogy registry system includes a central server database and a central server. The central server database includes surname workspaces for storing genealogical data in lineage-linked form, a submission link space for making and storing links between data in the data spaces, and a third-party link space for making and storing links between the data spaces. The central server includes a surname cooperation manager to manage cooperation between researchers researching genealogy for the same surname, a unique ID generator to generate a unique ID for any individual being researched, a visible data selector to allow access to a subgroup of data on the central server database, and a workstation manager to manage transmission of data to the central server database from workstations where data are assembled relating to a particular surname. The workstations may assemble data by extracting, indexing, sorting and linking information from source documents for the surname.