This is my parental grandfather Adolf Goldenberg. The picture was taken in K.Kniazkov’s studio, Simferopol in 1880.
My ancestors settled in the Crimea long before I was born. My father's generation - Jacob Goldenberg's lived in Simferopol [about 1350 km to the south from Moscow].
My parental great grandfather Shlema Malinskiy settled in Simferopol in 1856 after his army service in Sevastopol was over [Sevastopol is about 1430 km to the south from Moscow]. He was in the Black Sea Fleet of the tsar's army during the Crimean war.
By the tsar's decree Jews, who had defended Sevastopol were entitled to settle in that city. [In Tsarist Russia Jews were allowed to settle only in the Jewish Pale of Settlement, apart from merchants and doctors, who were permitted to settle in larger cities too. This case an exception was made based on military merits.] That is why my ancestors settled in Crimea.
I kept the service record of Shlema Malinskiy [great grandfather] as of 1855 in our family archive, obtained by my mother from the Black Sea Fleet. From the archive data I found out that my great grandfather was born in 1811.
He was drafted from Volyn province of Ostrovtse town. The service record says that he was a fair-haired Jew, with the height of 2 arshines and 5 vershok [Russian length measures of the 19th century: 1 arshin = 71.1 cm, 1 vershok = 4.4 cm, so his height was 164.2 cm] with light complexion and hazel eyes.
He was a senior private, conferred with a silver medal with the inscription: For the Defense of Sevastopol in the period of 13 Sep 1854 - 28 Aug 1855.He did not know Russian grammar, but he was well-up in sailing, and was promoted a number of times.
As it is indicated in the service record , by the end of the military service Shlema was married to Shedva Leibova. They had a son Avrum-Itsek and a daughter Leya. [Dora, the grandmother is not mentioned in the records].
I do not know when my parental grandfather, Adolf Goldenberg, passed away. All I know that he deceased before I was born. Grandfather lived in Simferopol. He was bourgeois, owned a house at Gogolevskaya Street, and sold things. I do not know exactly what he sold.
Grandfather was married twice. I do not know anything about his first wife. She must have died. I also have no information about his education. I do not know whether he was religious. I do not think he was very religious as well as grandmother.
