Note 1 — I

My grandfather settled in Borovoi-Mlin, in the province of Vilna, in 1851. The Government granted certain privileges to Jewish agricultural colonists, exemption from military service for a period of twenty-five years being one of them. Military service in Russia at that time lasted twenty-five years, and the life of a soldier was terribly hard. Few ever returned to their native places. To save his sons from military duty, my grandfather decided to become a peasant.