In city directories, what is a required field? Same name but different address do we index all?

CovingtonArleneBrake1

In city directories, what is a required field? Same name but different address do we index all?

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Required fields are marked with an asterisk; in the city directory batches I've seen, that has been all of them: Surname, Prefix, Given Names, Spouse's Surname, Spouse's Prefix, Spouse's Given Names. Notice the total absence of anything even remotely resembling an address. This means that lines that differ only in the address are only indexed once.

For example, if you got the following page:

1. Davis, William, baker, 123 Main St.
2. Davis, William Albert, baker, 123 Main St.
3. Davis, William Albert, baker, 22 Chestnut St.
4. Davis, William Albert, mason, 88 Maple Ave.
5. Davis, William Charles, baker, 123 Main St.

then you'd index three entries:

Entry 1. Surname = Davis, Prefix = <blank>, Given Names = William, Spouse's Surname = <blank>, Spouse's Prefix = <blank>, Spouse's Given Names = <blank>.
Entry 2. Surname = Davis, Prefix = <blank>, Given Names = William Albert, Spouse's Surname = <blank>, Spouse's Prefix = <blank>, Spouse's Given Names = <blank>.
Entry 3. Surname = Davis, Prefix = <blank>, Given Names = William Charles, Spouse's Surname = <blank>, Spouse's Prefix = <blank>, Spouse's Given Names = <blank>.

Notice that while my highly-contrived example differs only in the middle name for lines 1 and 2, they're indexed separately, since that middle name is part of the "Given Names" field, which is required. Conversely, lines 3 and 4 agree only on the name, but are not indexed separately, since none of the things where they're different are included in the indexing.

erutherford

Required fields are prefix, given name, surname spouse's prefix, spouse's given name and spouse's surname. Address have never been indexed. If two (or more) entries are the exact same, ie John Doe, you will index only the first John Doe and then skip to the next unique entry, ie John A. Doe. From Project Instructions/What To Remember About This Project:

Index each unique name. Some names may be duplicated. When names are exact duplicates, meaning that all required fields are the same, index only the first instance of the name listed. Skip the other exact duplicates and then index the next unique name. Unique names include names with different middle initials and different name spellings or where the other required fields are different.