Lynks between records

How a person is connected to a household or an establishment, and how you name those relationships.

A lynk is a named connection between an individual and either a household or an establishment. Lynks are what let a register of separate people describe a family, a school roll or a workforce.

What a lynk is

Each lynk carries the two records it joins, the role the person holds, and for a household whether they are the primary contact. The count of a person’s lynks appears in the Lynks column of the register.

Creating a lynk

From the individual’s form, using the Household Lynk and Establishment Lynk sections.
From a household or establishment page, by searching for an existing person and giving them a role.
From a household or establishment page, by registering a brand new person and lynking them in one step.

The individual form edits one household lynk and one establishment lynk. If a person belongs to more than one establishment, add the further ones from those establishments’ own pages.

Naming the relationship

The words you use are your own. Settings has a Relationship Types screen split into two parts: the standard roles CommonLynk provides, which you switch on or off, and your own custom roles, which you add, edit and remove. Roles are kept separately for households and for establishments, so a household list of Mother and Son never appears where you want Teacher and Pupil.

Alongside the role, an individual’s form also carries four ticks describing their part in the household: head of household, primary earner, primary caregiver and service recipient.

Removing a lynk

On a household or establishment page, the menu at the end of a member’s row offers Remove. Removing a lynk breaks the connection only. Neither record is deleted, and the person stays in your register.