Fascinating. I want this to be my next big project. About ten years ago I tried piercing the veil to see about my ancestors in the Pale of Settlement and I got absolutely nowhere. My ancestors (on that side of the family) are Latvian/Lithuanian and Ukrainian Jews. I got back in one branch to the shtetl of Postavy, which is now in Belarus, but couldn't track anyone else to so much as a point of origin. Maybe it's time to try again.