A Characteristic entity, if included in the BetterGEDCOM model, would record current known information about a certain characteristic of a single entity (e.g. a single Person, or a single Location, etc.). There are two mandatory attributes of any Characteristic entity:

• A "type" that describes what sort of Characteristic this is;
• A "value" of this Characteristic .

Important, but optional attributes, include:

• A date or date-range during which the value of the Characteristic is believed to be true;
• A location where the value of the Characteristic is believed to be true.

If Location is implemented as a separate entity type in BetterGEDCOM, then the location referred to above would actually be a pointer to the correct Location entity, not the name of it.

Questions being considered about Event entities include:

1. Is the Characteristic entity required by the BetterGedcom model in the Logical Data Model? Basic data normalisation says "yes".
2. For the physical implementation of the BetterGEDCOM file, is the Gedcom approach adequate (embedding Characteristics within persons), or the Characteristics be physically separate entities in the file?
3. If BetterGedcom chooses to include the Characteristic entity and also chooses to support the evidence and conclusion aspects of genealogical research, how are the same questions asked of the Person entity to be answered?