The Chrome browser was the first in ~2018, probably starting a trend: It informs you that information you receive from a particular web site may be intercepted and changed by bad actors, and information you submit to this web site may be intercepted and misused as well. For our site, these are very unlikely threats. Hackers are interested in profit, and there is very little opportunity here. In recent years we have added technology to address this issue, so you should no longer see such warnings when visiting our site. Unfortuntely this does not guarantee absolute security --that is impossible-- but indicates more security.

A: Google announced the end-of-life of the technology, recommending that people use built-in translation features of modern browsers. Technically, this feature was implemented with a very old method, which made some site maintenance tasks awkward. For both reasons, we dropped this function in mid-2021.

A: You may add as many dedications as you want, at no cost — within reason, as our resources are very limited. Contact the webmaster.

A: Click here or on the Contacts link in the Masthead, at upper left of each page.

A: You are probably asking about Version 1.0 of the site. It was replaced years ago by Version 2.0, which included a cross-reference from the old site. That's all ancient history, so the cross-reference — and many useless old pages — been deleted.

A: It has been deleted as secondary to the goals of our Group. If there is a strong reason to reinstate it, we can.

A: Some found places mentioned on the old web site were simply far outside the Brest region. (Specifics here.) We would rather do a better job on fewer communities closer to Brest City, so we've eliminated some of our former coverage. In every case, we've made an effort to make certain no material was lost.

A: Yes. It is clear that shtetls is a neologism that forms the plural of a Yiddish word with an English suffix. With apologies, this coined word is commonly used and universally understood in the English-speaking world. Generally, we try to use proper Yiddish. However, shtetls simply works better, even if it is incorrect and/or informal. One reason for using shtetls is technical: there is no easy way to italicize this word in some places — specifically, in the navigation menu.

A: The plural of landsman is landsleit, and both words ought to be italicized as Yiddish words inserted in English text. There are currently technical limitations that discourage using italicization in some places. It is clear that Landsmen is a neologism that forms the plural of a Yiddish word with an English suffix. With apologies, this coined word is commonly used and universally understood in the English-speaking world. Generally, we try to use proper Yiddish. However, Landsmen simply works better, even if it is incorrect and/or informal.

A: Web standards generally discourage using quotation marks, so we often use italics instead. For complex material, we may use both.

A: Most of the graphics immediately visible on this web site are thumbnail images, intentionally small so they don't overwhelm the textual material. Smaller images are also quicker to download to your computer. Visitors using slower Internet connections will benefit. The site includes larger sizes of images, if we have them, and you can view them by clicking on the thumbnails.

A: We've placed a thick blue border around all images which can be enlarged simply by clicking on the thumbnail image. Your browser may add additional cues, such as changing the cursor when it is over such an image. For example, the default cursor on the current Firefox browser is an arrow, which changes to a pointer-finger when you place it anywhere on an expandable graphic.

A: Placing a note like Click on any image to a large version near every image complicates the pages without adding much value. If this is a problem for a significant number of viewers, we'll try to figure out a better alternative.

Unfortunately some photos came to us only in the thumbnail size. You can't see larger versions of some photos because none are available.

A: Our intention is that all larger versions you may want to study in context of the original page will open in a new window. If this hasn't been accomplished consistently, it's because it's a tedious job to adjust this correctly for the more than 500 small+large pairs on the site. Also because it isn't always easy to distinguish what should open in a new window, and what should not.

A: Our intention is that all pages on our site open in the same window. The original site opened every page in a new window, which seemed awkward. On the other hand, off-site references — pages on other web sites — should open in new windows, as a way of reinforcing the fact that they are elsewhere. If this hasn't been accomplished consistently, it's because it's a tedious job to adjust all the links on the site.

A: We've chosen a compromise size that's large enough for many visitors. Today's browsers provide the means for expanding the size of ordinary text on any web page, and that's the best method for supporting the widest range of visual abilities. Check the Help for your browser. If you can't make sense of that, contact us, letting us know the name and version of the browser you are using, also the operating system you are using (e.g. MacOS 10.10 or Windows 10). We'll do our best to help you, but we can't guarantee a happy outcome, especially with older or less-known browsers.

A: It's difficult to know unless you tell us the identity of the page, the name and version of the browser you are using, and also the operating system you are using (e.g. MacOS 10.10 or Windows 10). Browsers often display web pages differently. One browser may display a specific page perfectly, while a different version of the same browser may display a distorted page. Commercial web sites have the resources to test web pages on many different browsers. In our case, there's just one person doing all the web work, so extensive testing is just not possible.

A: We've done our best to eliminate garbled text by using a universal typography (called UTF-8). Please inform us if you find cases we've missed.

A: It's just a tekkie (technical expert's) way of distinguishing new from old. The materials making up this web site are surprisingly extensive. Without some technical means of organization, it would be easy to get confused. Most of that is hidden from visitors to the site.

A: This is a privacy and anti-spam measure. (See this introductory article about spam.) Web sites such as ours are incessantly scanned by spammers looking for usable email addresses. They harvest email addresses from web sites and then send spam messages to them; they also sell the addresses to other spammers. As a result of this, the Internet is flooded with spam. The email links on the V1.0 site are completely unprotected from being harvested. In addition, visitors contacting you can see your email address, which may be a privacy concern to some of you.

A: You might not actually receive much spam today, but spammers are constantly adjusting their methods. If spammers are unusually clever tonight, your in-box may be filled tomorrow. The spam messages you don't see still consume resources and may be keeping the cost of your Internet service unnecessarily high.

A: No, unfortunately. No measures provide absolute security. In general, the more drastic measures usually involve more inconvenience for ordinary users. The new measures are intended to make life a little more difficult for spammers and privacy-violators, while having a minimal impact on people doing genealogy work on our site.

A: We removed this feature. It wasn't very popular — no one complained in the many years since we removed it — and we couldn't figure out a practical way to provide useful captions.

A: In the past few years Yahoo fell on hard times and was sold off. Promises were made by the new owner of the Groups that this feature would be maintained and even improved, but as of this writing, features have been removed, and the new owner doesn't show much energy toward moving forward. In the meantime, message activity on the group fell to the point that only a few posts appeared each year -- and these were mostly spam. It wasn't worthwhile the effort to maintain these, especially with the possibility the service might disappear entirely any time. So around 2019, we stopped maintaining the Yahoo Group. The message history and file contents have been archived.

A: First, to protect personal privacy of members and living descendents. Ordinarily, materal on web sites is visible to essentially everyone in the world. That is wonderful for visibility, but some people might not want their names or information they consider private quite so visible. Second, on a restricted-access site, we can share material that is protected by copyright amongst contributors. There's no restriction on sharing material privately.

A: SIG stands for Special Interest Group. It seems that was used early in the history of the group, but eventually seemed a bit redundant.Our name is simply Brest-Belarus Group.

A: Well..., no. We've posted questions and answers we suppose might come up from time to time.