Of the many factors that contributed to the migration from the Russian Empire, the most important was the transition from a pre-industrial to modern industrial state. Russian overseas migration was similar to the Polish one, but was more a temporary labor migration. Finally, marked differences in migration patterns among Russian Jews in the Pale of Settlement depended on population densities, age, sex, and occupational background. The date of arrival arranges the passenger lists in chronological order in the volumes. The lists give the name of the ship and the port of embarkation.
Passengers appear on the printed lists in the order of appearance on the original lists.
This eases location of the passenger on the microfilm of the original list, if one wishes to do so in the future. The list then gives the name of the passenger, age, sex, occupation, province, village, and destination.