Beylman in Szaki

In the cyrillic alphabet the Bellman surname was commonly spelled Beylman or Beilman in its earliest form in Lithuania, and that's the spelling to use when discussing earliest available records from the region.

Not all records are available. The collection "Metrical books, 1854-1914, Jewish Congregation, Vilijampolė (Lithuania)" has some Beylman family records going back to the 1830s. While not all of these can be connected to the modern Bellman clan, some can.

The 1862 record above is for a Rode (modern Rhoda) Beylman, daughter of Tubias, the son of Shmuel Beylman and his wife Kreine, who was the daughter of Shaya (which may be a diminutive of Ishaya or Yehoshue). Tuvaish or Tobias is the same first name as the father of David Girsh Beylman, whose birth record isn't available in this collection. But we know from David's daughter's 1890 birth record that David's father was also Tobias.

We also know about another marriage in these records, Freide Beile Beilman to a Meer Goldoft in 1893. Her parents are Tobiash and Kreine Zilan. We don't have the image but it's been transcribed at the JewishGen LitvakSIG database. This constellation of parents matches that of David Girsh Beylman, so this is probably a sister.

There are a scattering of other Beylman/Beilman folks in these Lithuanian records, some of whom may be related: Jonas, born in 1843 to Szmoyl and Rochel; Mowsza, born in 1836 to Faywusz and Beyla and died in 1842; Hirsz, who died at age 13 and whose father was Fajwus; Beyla, the wife of Faywusz, who died in 1856 at the age of 64; Yona, a daughter of Smuel who died in 1862 at the age of 16; Fajwus who died in 1867 at the age of 73; and Rywka Bejlman, daughter of Szmojla (Szzmoyl?) and Rocha (Rochel?) who died at six months old in 1856. Because of the non-continuous nature of the records, missing books, lacunae, and spelling variations, we may not be able to connect these people to our Bellman family, but the records tell us that there were others with the same surname who could very well have been relatives.

What we do know and can confirm:

• Tobias/Tuviash was married to a Kreine Zilan
• The father of Tobias/Tuviash was called Shmuel
• Tobias/Tuvaish was the father of David Girsh Beylman
• Tobias and Kreine were the parents of Rode, born in 1862
• Freide Beile Beilman's parents were Tobiash Beilman and Kreine Zilan
• Kreine Zilan had a father called Shaya Zilan.

Moreover, the name Kreine Beile corresponds very closely to Corona Baley, the name legendarily handed down by the El Paso Bellman researchers. And the man identified as "Reb Tevye Bellman," the father of David Girsh, is likely the same as Tobias/Tuviash Beylman, whose son is listed in the records as a merchant or a trader. Was Tobias actually a rabbi? Perhaps if he was it was an honorific name indicating his scholarly predilections.

There will be more research needed to establish a clear picture of the Beylman families in Mariampol and Vilijampole, but that's in the future. Updates will be published here when available.