Ruth Coman and I have been working steadily on the indexing of the
Hugo Gold Bohemia book and we should soon complete this task. Vera
Finberg will also be joining us.

My feeling is that this Excel file will be a very useful resource in
its own right and I will also cross-index every place/Gemeinde with
the 1793 census, wherever possible. You will be able to scan through
it quickly to see what each chapter has to offer - if anything!

After looking at the new work on the Prague Jewish Museum website:
Encyclopaedia of Jewish Communities in Bohemia and Moravia, I
seriously question how far we should go after indexing the Gold books
[inc Moravia]. The new data >from Prague is excellent but only in
Czech! It is more structured and targeted and adapted to the needs of
most of us in the 21st century than the Gold volumes and could be
very valuable to genealogists. Paul King has checked the new Pribram
chapter and finds it more valuable than the Hugo Gold "Pribram".

You have to buy the chapters. The Gold chapters are variable/patchy -
and frequently give no genealogical data of value. Some give in-depth
history, others a brief mention. Some stress the religious leaders of
the community - only a few are very detailed. Some/many are terribly
tedious and badly structured.

Even if you understand no Czech [I speak not a word, but I can get
the gist of the contents] or German - it is possible to screen the
chapter to see if there are names in there which may be of
genealogical interest.

Please look at the new data >from Prague - sample chapters on:
Brandys nad Labem, Damborice, Dobruska, Horazdovice and Pribram. Some
have interesting census data [see Damborice] and there are plenty of
names: http://www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/adokuzo.htm

We are are a genealogy group and there are some very specific
projects in Bohemia and Moravia, which looked at on a "cost/benefit
basis", will be of more value to many of us in our lifetime [eg;
continuation of the Familianten records inc. vital data >from the
Moravian archives - where we have hardly anything].

I fear the Gold project would be for our [gt] grandchildren and
indeed they may not be interested! As German is far more accessible
to most of us than Czech - it is the Czech chapter of greatest
importance which should be targeted in Bohemia and Moravia. The
"bullet point" model used by Prague for their current work could be
used - ie a precis - but then that would be anathema to the Yizkor
Project.

There are probably 1,500 pages to translate in all. If we estimate a
week/page - there are many tables and proof-reading will be a
nightmare and require experts [plenty of footnotes too] - we arrive
at a rough estimate of 30 years! This may be an overestimate but I
doubt it. The cost would be prohibitive.

Surely all aspects of this project must be discussed very carefully
before we commit ourselves to a leviathan?

Celia Male [U.K.]