12. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein each related entity is associated with one or more identity records, wherein each related entity represents a distinct individual.
4. A computer-implemented method to resolve identity records received by an entity resolution system and referencing a common individual, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a search identity record from a requestor and representing a first individual; resolving the search identity record against a set of known entities in the entity resolution system to identify a first entity to associate with the search identity record; identifying one or more entities related to the first entity; determining an association relevance score to assign to the first entity based on a relevance score assigned to at least one related entity and a relationship strength between the entity and the at least one related entity; determining a derived relevance score to assign to the first entity, based on the association relevance score; and determining a search relevance score of the first entity, based on at least one of the association relevance score and the derived relevance score and by operation of one or more computer processors, wherein the search relevance score is output and represents a quantitative measure of relevance of the first individual to the requestor.