Beinish Handelsman

Jenny Goodman's maternal grandfather was David Handelsman (1819-1893). David's parents were Beinish Handelsman (born circa 1796) and Esther nee Sztul (born circa 1800). Evidently Esther died around 1825 since Beinish was married to another woman by 1826 and had several more children with his second wife. One of these children was born in Michow in 1837, so perhaps he moved to Michow when he remarried. By the 1840's Beinish had moved back to Kurow where a son, Berek was born in 1844. David Handelsman remained in Michow for the rest of his life, in the village of Rudno where his daughter Esther (Jenny's mother) was born in 1844. David was a successful merchant and eventually his son Moshe Yankel Handelsman took over the Rudno village business while David moved to a different part of Michow and established a business there. Jenny Goodman's family resided in the household of Moshe Handelsman. Jenny's father Abram was a religious scholar and thus did not work, so the family lived on the generosity of the Handelsman clan.

The given name Beinish is pretty rare. Beinish Handelsman was born in Kurow and was the only person there with that name. In a few earlier Kurow records there was a man named Levi Biniasowicz (son of Beinish) who was a merchant of some kind. Below is a notary record from 1694 concerning Levi. Kurow had been sacked and burnt to the ground twice in the mid 1600's, first by Cossacks, then by Swedes. By 1670 it had been rebuilt and there was a small Jewish population, which was granted permissions to build a synagogue, bath, hospital, etc and also granted equal rights. Quite possibly Beinish Handelsman was related to Levi, 3-5 generations later. Impossible to know how.

Also impossible to translate this document since it is in archaic Polish.