Dear Bialygenners:

As I have mentioned before, we will be cooperating with the
Belarus SIG on projects that benefit both groups. It is no
mystery that any Belarus project benefiting Grodno Gubernia
researchers will be of benefit to us. Belarus SIG Coordinator,
Dave Fox, has invited BialyGen to cooperate in an ongoing
project, which Dave described in his Belarus SIG Report from
the DC 2003 Conference. I have quoted a couple of extracts

from this message.

The first is about the Belarus SIG projects:

"In addition, there are other sources that are in
both the Grodno and Minsk archives that should
benefit most Belarus researchers, but which I am
not at liberty to discuss in detail at this time. You
will have to trust me and donate funds to the Belarus
general fund so we can get this project started. In
addition, we are about 35% percent complete on
another project that will benefit not only people
researching families >from Grodno gubernia, but also
people >from other areas in other gubernii. Just as the
Minsk 1912 marriage and divorce registers that are
now on line include information >from people born or
registered in all parts of Belarus, this new database
will also contain place of birth and place of
registration. However, we are short of funds to
complete this project."

This second extract is about the relationship with BialyGen:

"A new research group was formed for Bialystok area
researchers. This area was formerly part of Grodno
gubernia, most of which is now in Belarus, and is now
part of Poland. While the Belarus SIG is not looking for
data >from areas now in Poland, if data for Bialystok is
found among records we are researching in the Grodno
archive, we will either retrieve this data or notify the new
Bialystok Research Group. I spoke with the leader of this
new group, Mark Halpern, and told him that the Belarus
SIG was working on a project that included names from
Bialystok and that he should not duplicate our efforts,
since the data would be made available to him via the
All Country Database through the All Poland Database."

When has a Research Group in its first month of existence been
able to become part of a project that is, as Dave states,
already 35% complete. One of the most important reasons why
BialyGen was formed and the most important goal of the 40 members
who met in Washington was to gain access to Grodno Gubernia
records not available in Poland. This is our first opportunity.

Like almost all research projects, this one also involves outside
costs that must be funded to complete the project. If BialyGen
members are to benefit >from this project, we must also bear some
of the cost. I am asking that BialyGen members contribute.

BialyGen now has been established on JewishGen-erosity. JewishGen
will handle all administrative tasks involved in contributing and
all the funds will be dedicated to BialyGen research projects.
All contributions through JewishGen-erosity are tax deductible in
the US. You will find the BialyGen contributions page at
http://www.jewishgen.org/JewishGen-erosity/Bialystokrrg.html. The
instructions for online or mail contributions are explained on
this webpage.

For this cooperative project with Belarus SIG, please designate
your contribution to "Grodno Archives Research Projects." You can
read a general description of this initiative by clicking the
link. Contribution are also needed for the BialyGen General Fund,
which will be used for other still unidentified projects.

JewishGen is providing BialyGen with this discussion group, with
a website, and with a means to collect and allocate contributions
that are tax deductible in the US. For this, they only require
that the results of our research, mainly data, reside in
JewishGen databases and other databases hosted on JewishGen. What
a bargain for us. In addition to your contribution to BialyGen
research projects, please also add a contribution to the
JewishGen General Fund, which will help keep all the great
JewishGen resources, including ours, available to Jewish
genealogists worldwide.

Please support our efforts.

Mark Halpern
BialyGen Coordinator