I would respectfully like to contribute some (hopefully)
constructive criticism of recent typical postings on this digest.
Before I get specific, I am aware that many of those posting
here are new to genealogy, Jewish genealogy specifically, and
the resources of Jewishgen.

If you are serious about finding your family history, as opposed
to just "throwing" out the names on the net in order to see what
comes your way, you must familiarize yourself with the concepts
of genealogical searching and the specific resources
available on Jewishgen. Both can be accomplished by going
to the Jewishgen website and reading the exceptional FAQ's.
There you will learn about the basic document search and
other common strategies for beginning your research.

Even if you are not inclined to do the requisite research you can at
least do some basic searching on the Internet.

For instance you can select a search engine (my preference
these days is Google.com) and type in a surname or a the name of
a town.


Now, I will address a few specifics:

"The family name or any phonetically similar names was
westernized by some immigration official"

This last point has been addressed hundreds of times in the six and
one-half years I have participated in Jewishgen and it's other resources
(like this forum.) There were NO name changes made by immigration
officials. They had no opportunity to do so. There are a lot of reasons
and explanations for name changes all of which can be found in the
Info. Files or Archives on Jewishgen. [Please don't flame me with stories
to that effect >from your family lore. Although your relatives may have
perceived that situation it was not the correct perception.

"I am looking for other people who are researching the town of
Kremenchug"

Type "Kremenchug" in the Google search engine and you will
get 1,850 hits. Not all are in English and not all sites are operational
but I found much general information, and photography, about the place,
(including many woman >from there who are looking to find a
man in the US ;~)

Lois Sernoff <JGLois@...>

Researching:
MEZHIRITZKY [MERITZ, MARRITZ, MARRITS] >from Korsun in Kiev Gub. to Phila.
SOSNOVSKY [SOSNOFSKY, SOSNOV - all spelling variations] >from Gorodishche
in Cherkassy uezd, Kiev Gub. to Philadelphia, PA or anywhere.
FRIEDMAN >from Beltsy/Balti ["Bels" Bessarabia] Moldova to anywhere
KUSHNER [all spelling variations} >from Tomashpol and Yampol in Podolia Gub. to anywhere

Moderator Note: Some editing of message was done to avoid offending any member