The attached summarises my discoveries to date. We are now confronted with numerous brick walls.Marks Vilensky most likely came from the region between Vilnius and the Polish city of Suwalki, although there were also occurrences of the in other regions of Poland in the 1840s.Based on naming patterns (i.e. names passed down the generations), I am pursuing the theory that the Portner family was closely related to the Portnoi/Portnoy family of Vasilishki, formerly in the Vilna governorate of the Russia Empire, now in northern Belarus. The fact that Ruben and Annie gave one of their sons the unusual name Keva indicates a strong link to Kivel Rubin Portnoi, b. 1822. The latter could have easily fathered a son at the age 50-ish, and could easily have been dead by the time Rubin and Annie named Keva in 1896. It is also feasible that Rubin was Kivel's grandson. We urgently need to establish the name of Rubin's father.As has been mentioned, you need to order a couple of marriage certificates (Vellensky-Levy in 1887 and Brown-Brown in 1884) in order to be able to progress.
Who are marks betsy and israel in that document? I have managed to make a connection to the keva mentioned thank you
