In the book A Generation of Rabbis and Writers by Ben-Zion Eisenstadt, Vilna and Warsaw, 1901, on page 38, at the end of a passage discussing Rabbi Yehuda Meshil Hakohen Tzirkel, the text goes on to say that this rabbi was the brother of
...the Gaon Rabbi Shamai, Head of the Rabbinical Court of Visoki Litevsk ...
According to the text, Yehuda Meshil was born in 1837, giving some guidance as to the life-span of his brother, Rabbi Shamai.
