Foreword by Dr. Arye Morgenstern
  The Heritage of the Gaon of Vilna and His Influence on History. . . . . ix

Dvar Torah: Torah and Genealogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Part I
Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
  Oral Tradition and Documented Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
  History of Research of the Family of the Gaon of Vilna. . . . . . . . . .3
  Highlights of New Information Discovered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
  Research Difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
  Number of Descendants of the Gaon of Vilna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
  Sources for Research of the Gaon of Vilna's Genealogy . . . . . . . . . .9
  Prenumeranten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
  Ancestry of the Gaon of Vilna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Wives of the Gaon of Vilna  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Children of the Gaon of Vilna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Birth Order of the Sons of the Vilna Gaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Erroneous Claims of Relationships to the Gaon of Vilna. . . . . . . . . 23
  Presumed Relatives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  Family Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Chapter 2: Rabbi Eliyahu, the Gaon of Vilna: His Life and Times . . . . . 27
  Life of Rabbi Eliyahu, the Gaon of Vilna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
  Dispute Between the Khassidim and Misnagdim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
  Eternal Influence of the Gaon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
  Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Chapter 3: Oral Traditions: Examples of Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Komesaroff (Komisaruk). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
  Horowitz (Gurewitz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
  Chinitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
  Friedlander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  Orphaned Granddaughters of the Gaon of Vilna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
  Bardin, Lipshitz, Grad, Olkenitsky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   Bardin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
   Lipshitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
   Grad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
   Olkenitsky (Komisar, Helman, Bamberger). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
  Bloch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
  Donchin (Don Yechia). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
  Menkin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
  Sister of the Gaon of Vilna: Families Volpa, Epstein, Finfer. . . . . . 54

Part II
Chapter 4: How to Read and Understand the Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Transliteration from Hebrew and Russian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Identification Numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
  Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Biographical Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Source Citations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
  Cousin Marriages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter 5: Family Tree of the Descendants of Rabbi Eliyahu,
  the Gaon of Vilna, and His Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
  Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .554

Chapter 6: Unconfirmed Connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .573

Appendix: Town Names Used in This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .586

Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .591

Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .597

Index to Persons on the Family Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .604

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