"HKT: What exactly is ""modern research""? It is obvious that during the era of the Vilna Gaon, the usage of surnames was not yet common. It was in the aftermath of Napoleon and his armies, and their ""laws"", that Jews were required to commence taking surnames, which for Litvaks was usually connected to their family's work or trades, thus while the Vilna Gaon may not have had any real use or much reason to use the name Kremmer (the Lithunaina way of saying ""Kramer"") nevertheless it is accepted that that was the family name that was associated with him/his family in Vilna and which he/they presumably used. Otherwise why would the name have any connection to him/them? Do you think that there were ""who's who"" publications or ""VIP"" directories, published in those days? If there is a widely accepted mesorah that the Gaon's family name was Kremmer then why should good Jews doubt it just because some ""modern researcher"" decided to dig into realms of information that are in all probability not suited for ""modern research"" in the first place? Unless of course the non-Jews kept records of Jewish names that can be traced to the Gaon, which seems unlikely for Lithuanians.  

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