Grandma's father Abram Gutman's maternal grandmother Mnicha Haneft (1797-1824)

Abram's mother Tema (=Tamara) died at age 39 in 1855 when Abram was 11. Tema's mother Mnicha (=Mary, Manya, Marian) died at age 27 in 1824 when Tema was 8. The death certificate says she was 27 when she died on April 25th, witnesses Moszek Zelmanowicz Haneft, 33, and Icek Janklowicz Kraft 42. She died in Konskowola, which is where Tema married Abram's father David in 1836. Moshe Haneft was a religious leader in that town. He remarried soon after, as was the custom, and perhaps had more children but Tema is his only known offspring. Moshe died in Konskowola in 1859.

Mendel Morgenstern's second marriage - January 1, 1838 in Kock, officiated by a Gutman

So my grandmother falsely claimed that Mendel Morgenstern was her great grandfather. We know who her parents (Abram Yankel Gutman (1844-19??) and Shaindel Esther Handelsman (1844-1899)) were. Abram's parents were David Gutman (1814-1872) and Tema Haneft (1816-1855). Esther's parents were David Handelsman (1819-1893) and Perla Kawe (1821-1888). David's parents were Berek Gutman (?-1846) and Yenta ? (?-?) of Kock. Tema's parents were Moshe Haneft (1790-1860) and Mnicha ? (?-1824) of Konskowola. David's parents were Beinish Handelsman (1796-?) and Esther Sztul (?-1826). Perla's parents were Levi Kawe (1795-1871) and Dvora ? (1792-1867). Berek's parents were Icek & Mala. Esther Sztul's parents were Moshe and Rachel. Rachel's father was Juda. Juda's father was Joseph.

So Jenny Goodman's great-grandfathers were Beinish Handelsman, a merchant, Levi Kawe, occupation unknown, Moshe Haneft, a clergyman, and Berek Gutman, a baker. All of them born in the 18th century. However there was a Gutman connection to Mendel Morgenstern. Berek's brother Wolf Gutman was a clergyman, not ordained as a rabbi but acting in that capacity for the town of Kock in the 1820's. It is likely that Morgenstern was invited to move to Kock in 1829, from Tomaszow, where he was in conflict with the Jewish religious authorities. However Wolf Gutman continued to officiated at most of the weddings in Kock until his death in 1844. One of these weddings was the 1838 marriage of Mendel Morgenstern and Chaya Lipszycz (Lipszhitz).

The affidavit of that wedding is below, signed in Roman cursive by Wolf Gutman. It is extraordinary that Wolf Gutman could write Roman cursive. Almost all Jewish civil documents were signed in Yiddish at that time. Anyway it is clear that Wolf Gutman, and likely his brother Berek, Jenny's great-grandfather, were intimately involved with Morgenstern. Berek's son David, Jenny's grandfather, and David's son Abram, Jenny's father, were religious scholars and teachers. Abram and Esther married in the mid 1860's and initially lived in Michow, moved to Kock upon the death of David Gutman in 1872 (maybe Abram assumed David's position) and back to Michow in 1891.

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.

David Handelsman, maternal grandfather of Jenny Goodman (Czarna Gutman)

He was born 12 Sep 1819 in the village of Klementowice in the town of Kurow, and died 15 Oct 1893 in the town of Michow. My grandmother was 12 at the time of his death and also living in Michow so she must have known him. His birth certificate is below, signed in Yiddish by his father Beinish Dawidowicz (Handelsman), age 24, Manes Dawidowicz (Klemensberg) and maternal grandfather Moshe Leybusowicz (Sztul). His mother is given as Esther Moskowicz (Sztul).

There was only one Jewish household in Klementowice, headed by Juda Josfowicz Klemensberg, the maternal grandfather of Esther Moskowicz. There are 15 birth, marriage, and death records of this household from the period 1810-1825, including the 1818 marriage of Beinish and Esther, and the births of two siblings of David - Rosa Czarna in 1822 and Aaron in 1825. Czarna Gutman might have been named after Rosa Czarna. There were also records of the births of two siblings of Esther and as well the deaths of two other siblings.

Manes Dawidowicz Klemensberg was the son of Dawid Manesowicz Klemensberg and Zlota Josfowiczowna Klemensberg. I reckon that Zlota and Juda Klemensberg were siblings, and that Dawid Manesowicz took his wife's surname when they married. If so then Manes Dawidowicz was a cousin of Esther Moskowicz. Juda Klemensberg is named as the head of household (arendarz) in these records. Apparently he was in the wine and liquor business. He was born about 1750 and still alive in 1825 when he legally changed his name to Brandywein.

The name Klemensberg also appears as Klemenstal and Klemenstein in the 1810-1825 records but only as Klemensberg in later records. The name is very rare, and almost all occurrences are from Kurow, with a handful from nearby towns. So it is a safe bet that the name was constructed from the village of Klementowice, and that anyone with this surname was related to Jenny Goodman.

Elias Meyers was actually Meyer Handelsman

The English immigration officer "suggested" the name change. So "cousin E. Meyers" was actually Jenny Gutman's cousin. I also learned that the Meyers family had been living in Leeds. At least 5 of their children were born in England so they were in England by 1885. Meyer Handelsman was born in 1863, in Warsaw if the US records are right. it is possible that he was a 1st cousin of Jenny; more likely 1st cousin once removed or 2nd cousin. Need more information.

Departure From Liverpool

Best to download these if you wish to inspect them. Joe, Jenny, and Esther are at the bottom of the page. Notice just above that Elias & Bertha Meyers and their 5 children. Barnett Bright is on the following page (not shown here).

Below are pages 1 and 2 of the August, 1908 immigration record of Joseph Goodman when he moved from Winnipeg to St Louis. He is on line 5 of each. .

Elias Meyers appears as "cousin E. Meyers" on the page above. Elias Meyers and family emigrated to St Louis in March of 1908. Barnett Bright followed in September, to "uncle Elias Meyers.". In the 1910 St Louis census Barnett is a boarder with the family. Soon after Barnett married Leah Meyers. In the 1940 Los Angeles census, Elias Meyers, 77, widower is a boarder with Barnett and Leah Bright, and their two sons, Russell and Ernest. Barnett Bright died in LA in 1944 and Elias Meyers in 1946. All those records can be found on Ancestry.

So another mystery - whose cousin was Elias Meyers - Joe's or Jenny's? Was Barnett Bright related to us as well? They traveled together to Winnipeg and reunited in St Louis so there must have been strong bonds.

Arrival In Canada

My grandfather told me that he tried to farm in Canada. My memory of that is vague. He said the deal was that if he farmed for 10 years the deed to the 100-acre farm would have been granted to him, but the Quebec winter was too harsh so he gave up after one year.

More likely the farm was 160 acres in Manitoba under the Dominion Lands Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Lands_Act). According to the wikipedia article there was no such program in Quebec. The part about giving up after one year is true. Grandpa was working for the G.W. Murray Furniture Company in Winnipeg when he emigrated to St Louis in August, 1908. On the immigration form it gives his address as Burrows Ave in Winnipeg, and notes that he arrived in Montreal on the SS Victorian. Here is the record of the Halifax arrival of "J Goodman, Mrs J Goodman, and Esther Goodman" on the SS Victorian on March 23, 1907, showing that Winnipeg was their destination. Also bound for Winnipeg are Elias Meyers, wife Eva, their 5 children, and a bachelor, Barnett Bright. No coincidence (see following post)