I am building a list of townspeople for my Kehilalinks page online and would appreciate any suggestions as to the most effective method of organization.

 

I do not just want an alphabetic surname list, since many people recorded in sources such as Yizkorbooks are often mentioned only by a first name or by occupation or by a nickname or maybe not at all if not 'remembered' by someone who perhaps knew them and recorded their names in published documents or online databases.

Some necrologies use a family arrangement with at least one spouse by name and some reference to child or children without the number being specified. This method has merit, but overlooks recording at least 'an educated guess" at the number of children and grossly underestimates the real number of children killed in the Holocaust. The singular 'child' , 'son' and 'daughter' is clear enough, but is it acceptable for me to assume that 'children' signifies at least two? 

 

But certainly most families among religious Jews (the majority in some towns) of pre-War Poland had larger than average sized families so 'children' should be considered at a minimum of six (a very conservative estimate in my opinion). Currently I have chosen to use half this number (3) which I think may be closer in fact to reflect the actual count of children resident in a given Jewish community at a given time. Is this a safe assumption?

 

Maybe someone knows what the 'average' might be and that figure can be arbitrarily used to build a directory db?

 

 Some of my genealogy-minded friends have advised me not to list unverifiable data at all, i.e., not to include any children for a given family unless known by name or by direct reference to the number of siblings as given in the sources. Would any genealogists or statisticians out there agree with this dictum or not?

 

Within the limitations of budgetary and time considerations (of course), I would sincerely appreciate any suggestions to help me establish reasonable guidelines for making my names directory as accurate and as complete as it can be. 

Avigdor Ben-Dov