Anna Gandelsman's family

This is my mother's family in Priluki in 1905. My great-grandmother Rohlia Zbarskaya is in the second row. She is wearing a black shawl. My great-grandfather Isaak Zbarskiy is beside her. Their older son is on the right of my great grandmother. The first on the left in the second row from the top is my grandmother Hana Gandelsman, nee Zbarskaya, my grandfather Boruh Gandelsman is beside her. My mother Anna Gandelsman is the sixth on the right in the lower row, wearing a white dress. Her brother, who died in infancy is beside her and next to him is my mother's other brother Yasha Gandelsman. The oldest brother Moisey Gandelsman is the third on the left in the upper row. These are all I know. I know very little about my mother's family. My mother was born into the family of a poor Jewish fiddler in the town of Priluki, Chernigov province, in 1902. Her father Boruh Gandelsman, born in the 1860s, performed at Jewish weddings and parties. His family didn't have a stable income and they were very poor. My grandfather also tried to teach children to play the fiddle, but there were very few parents that could afford to pay for classes and this work didn't produce any profit. My grandmother Hana Gandelsman, nee Zbarskaya, didn't work. My grandparents lived with the family of my grandmother's parents Isaak and Rohlia Zbarskiye. I don't know what my grandfather Isaak was doing. I only know that he had many children that got various professions: wagon driver [balagula], melamed and teacher at cheder. They were rather poor. My grandfather Boruh died in his late forties. My grandmothers both became widows when they were very young. Hana lived a long life. She was a selfish woman and very different from the image of a typical Jewish mother. There was no warmth or motherly love in the house and her children left their parents' home as soon as they could. I don't know if they were religious or not.