One can safely say that surnames of Russian origin predominate among government officials, while surnames that seem to have Jewish origins seem to predominate the commercial listings. The number of Jewish names attached to high government jobs adds a word of caution to my previous assumption that Jews were generally excluded from these jobs. Second, the communities within the guberniya were not identical. While each town had pharmacy, grocer, fabric seller, and most had a variety of other occupations like hardware, tobacco, etc., there was quite a variety of commecial establishments in one uezd capital that might not be available in any other. A word is in order about transliterations.
Most transliterations follow the sounds.
All letters of diphthongs are included. My debt to native Russian-speakers is great. I appreciate the efforts of Luda Berengolts of the University of San Diego Law Library, Professor Michael Bazyler of Whittier Law School, and especially the work of Dr. Gregory Borover of Calgary Alberta, a regular and helpful participant in JewishGen, whose efforts have made both the given name index and the list of trades much more useful. Sinagogi Molitvennyi etc., and who will tailor a system for this project. Copyright 1996 by The Jewish Genealogical Society of Rochester .