Here's a question about a wedding record >from Vilnius. I don't know whether
the groom and bride are my ancestors.

Previously, I found multiple records >from Vilnius for my paternal gg-gf and
his family:

Benjamin IOELS (1817-1882), son of Leyb.
Wife, Rochla Leia (1822-1889), daughter of Abram.
Son, Abram (1849?-1923)
Daughter, Sorka (1859-?)

My search for the marriage record of Benjamin and Rochla Leia was unsuccessful,
until a researcher in France recently found a record >from 1838 that I had skipped
over.

Groom: Benyamin GINDZBERG, son of Leyb, age 21
Bride: Rokha Leya STUPEL, daughter of Abram, age 16.
Rabbi: Ayzyk GINDZBERG

The groom and bride's names, fathers' names and year of birth all match. What
doesn't match is the groom's surname (which is why I overlooked the record). The
researcher attributed this mismatch to an error on the part of the 21st century
translator, who must have copied the Rabbi's surname into the column for the
groom's surname.

However, another researcher in possession of the original handwritten record
checked and found that the groom's surname was written as GINDZBERG in both
the Russian and the Hebrew. That leaves three possible explanations for the
mismatch:

(1) The clerk who entered the original record in 1838 had the groom's surname
wrong.
(2) The groom changed his surname >from GINDZBERG to IOELS at some point
between 1838 and 1843 (when we have the next record for him).
(3) The groom is a different person entirely >from my gg-gf Benjamin IOELS.

I can't assess how likely it is that there would be two different weddings
in Vilnius for a Benjamin son of Leyb, born in 1817, and a Rochel Leah daughter of
Abram, born in 1822.

What do you think is the case? Does this record show my ancestors or
someone else?

David J Ellis
Natick, MA 01760
djemkitso@...