• Are you Norman Ross? No. This site has no relationship whatsoever with Norman Ross Publishing.

• Can I buy copies of the microfilms? You can buy copies of the microfilms from the publisher for about $100 apiece from Norman Ross Publishing (http://www.nross.com). Keep in mind that some films cover one year of issues, and some cover six months. Some years (1897) are great if you're also looking for people outside the Minsk gubernya, because they include large numbers of "wanted lists" published by other gubernyas.

• But I'm poor!!!!!!! You can also find the films at major research libraries, such as the New York Public Library (http://www.nypl.org) and many university libraries.

• Who cares about Minsk? The New York Public Library also has the Norman Ross Publishing microfilms for Kiev, Warsaw and other cities.

• Those stupid ad windows: Tripod gives users "free" Web server space in exchange for running ads on their Web sites. The banner ads look nice, but they mess up the operation of the site. They interfere with efforts to select, copy and search the text. Because the banner ads caused such big problems, I have switched back to using ads in pop-up windows.

• Ugliness: This site is very plain and ugly because text rules. Plain text loads quickly. Palm Pilots and machines that read to the blind can handle it very easily. Also, the beauty of plain text is that you can download it onto your computer and import it into your own software.

• Dictionaries: If you are not fluent enough to feel comfortable using an actual Russian dictionary, looking up old Russian legal terms spelled the pre-1917 way is a huge pain in the neck.

  When in doubt, assume that: a) The letter that looks like a cross between a b and a t turned into an e; b) The zs letter combination turned into an ss letter combination; and c) some of the hard and soft signs may have disappeared.

  Then look the word up in the Oxford Russian-English Dictionary, edited by Marcus Wheeler, published 1992, available for $23.96 at http://www.barnesandnoble.com and http://www.amazon.com.

  The complete 1994 Russian-English English-Russian dictionary published by Oxford, edited by Paul Falla, might be OK, but the desktop version of the Falla book and Della Thompson's pocket Oxford Russian dictionary give too few historical definitions. For Eastern European books, you should also try Victor Kamkin (http://www.kamkin.com).

• Russian transliteration system: My transliteration system is just NOT as classy and consistent as the JewishGen system, and it's evolved over time as I've learned about Cyrillic. Example: Up to now, I never included hard signs and soft signs, because it never occurred to me that you might need them to find words in a Russian dictionary. If you try transliterating any names you find here back into Russian, keep in mind that you may have to add some letters to make sense to an actual Russian, or Belarusan.

• Morale: This is a time-consuming project started for personal enjoyment. Quality of translations, update schedule, etc. will depend on energy level of creator and state of carpal tunnel syndrome. Harsh criticism will cause creator to permanently rest wrists.

• I Could Put Up A Better Site With Both Hands Tied to Beider's Dictionary of Jewish Surnames in the Russian Empire: If you want to put up a genealogy site ever, put it up NOW, while tools and Web hosting space are still free. To quote Robert Heinlein, "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Internet." The party will soon end.

  Tripod - Free, easy-to-use Web hosting service
  Atomz - Free search engine

Mail suggestions and translations to A.L. Bell (allbell@vnet.net)

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