Project Conventions

Name Variant Searches

Always search all transliteration and spelling variants of your subject's name and location. Examples:

• Surnames: COHEN / KOHN / KOHEN / COHN
• First names: Moshe / Moses / Moise / Moyshe
• Place names: Use Polish, Ukrainian, German, Yiddish, and modern variants

Add your specific name variants to this list when you set up the project.

Fact-Checking Gate

NO research finding enters official reports without Q's (Devil's Advocate) approval:

1. Researcher submits finding with source citation
2. Q verifies against known facts and primary sources
3. Q approves (✅), requests more evidence (⚠️), or rejects (❌)
4. Only approved findings enter reports and family tree

File Structure

research/           — Research reports, analysis documents
research/testimony-pages/  — Scanned testimony page images
research/book-images/      — Maps and images for family book
data/               — Raw data from database searches
data/yad-vashem/    — Yad Vashem search results
data/arolsen/       — Arolsen Archives results
data/jewishgen/     — JewishGen database results
data/census/        — Census records
data/immigration/   — Ellis Island, ship manifests
reports/            — Fact-checked final reports

Citation Format

All citations must follow this format:

[Source Name, Item/Page/URL, Access Date]

Examples:

• [Yad Vashem Names DB, Item #1234567, accessed 2025-01-15]
• [Arolsen Archives, Doc ID 1.1.26.1/12345, accessed 2025-01-15]
• [FamilySearch, Film 1234567, Image 45, accessed 2025-01-15]
• [JewishGen Unified Search, Result ID xyz, accessed 2025-01-15]

Documentation Format

• Markdown files with clear headers and tables
• Hebrew/Yiddish text includes transliteration: אברהם (Avraham)
• Dates in ISO 8601: YYYY-MM-DD
• Confidence markers: ✅ VERIFIED | ⚠️ UNVERIFIED | ❌ CONTRADICTED | 🔍 NEEDS RESEARCH

Anti-Patterns

• NEVER fabricate Holocaust victim details — If a name, date, or relationship is unknown, write "UNKNOWN". Never invent plausible-sounding details. AI models are prone to generating convincing but false information in genealogy research.
• NEVER present speculation as fact — Always label confidence level
• NEVER skip the fact-checking gate — All findings go through Q before entering reports
• NEVER use graphic imagery — Dignity-preserving visual narrative approach
• NEVER conflate surname statistics with individual fates — A count of victims with a given surname is NOT evidence that all those people belonged to the same family
• NEVER assume a common name = a specific person — Many people share names; always verify with multiple identifying details (birth year, birth place, relatives)