Developing the plan....

Why do we need a plan? That almost sounds like a silly question. Making a plan helps people to put in their viewpoint and gains commitment to what comes out of the process. It means we have priorities for our work and we have clear ideas of goals and outcomes. We haven't a plan right now.

My idea for making our plan is to work on two main levels:
- a district wide level; and
- a shtetl level.

The district wide level will focus on the translation of the district revision lists. We'll need to gain some feel for the numbers and types of records included there and then identify priorities.

The shtetl level plans will look at what's been translated for each shtetl, what's untranslated and taking account of the probable number of interested researchers we can set priorities for each shtetl.

For some shtetls there may be no records to translate. In those cases there are two main areas of possible translation activity: the district level records, and yizkor books - many of which have not been translated for the district's shtetls.

At the same time there is scope for other activity that should be useful:

1. Shtetl family trees - Steve Bloom has posted on this subject for Salakas.

2. Emigration studies - where did people go and when. This may help with ideas for developing your research as people from the same shtetl often went to the same place.

3. Creation of shtetlinks - websites for each of the shtetls - to bring together yizkor book material, trip reports, photos, family trees and anything else that's relevant.

So in the end we can create a priority list for each shtetl for all this possible activity over the next few years.

Let's hear from you, please!