David and Wynona's Family Histories

Michael’s father, David B. Appleman, was born on September 11, 1899, in Bichow in the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire (now Bykhaw, Belarus) of Ashkenazi stock.  David described his birthplace as a Jewish town of about 4,000 people, with two Russian policemen and a Russian judge.  It was a port town at the end of the navigable portion of the Dneipr River some 50 miles (or 80 versts, to use the Russian imperial measurement, which is how he remembered it) from the provincial capitol of Propoisk (now Slawharad, Belarus). 

David’s parents were Golda (née Schulkin) and Hirsh Appleman.  Golda was from Propoisk, and David said she was “illiterate, but smart,” and served as a de facto marriage counselor.  Hirsh was born in Bichow, and was described as a carpenter and lumberman.  He was educated, a lay rabbi or cantor; there is a [presumably posed] picture of him blowing the shofar during synagogue services, late in his life.  Golda was buried in Winnipeg, while he lived to be 80 and was buried in New Jersey.

David’s maternal grandfather was named Isur Schulkin; he ran a stage coach service between Propoisk and Bichow.  

David had four siblings:

The oldest was Henry.  The wife of the governor, Murumsov, arranged for him to study art at Vilna (Vilnius) at the Antokolski school; he then lived in Paris, eventually emigrating to Winnipeg via Hamburg.  Henry married Clara, and had two sons, Gabriel and Sidney.

David’s older sister Siema married a man named Abe Miller; they did not have children together, but he had some from a previous marriage.

David’s younger brother Alex (Alyo) studied to be an engineer, married, and had children, a son named John, and a daughter.

David’s younger sister, Sonia (Shirley), worked as a clerk after arriving in the new world, and married Victor Aubrey, with whom she had sons Bert and Gerald.

David was a studious youth, learning Talmud from a young age.  At ten years of age he moved to the town of Cherikov (now Cherykaw, Belarus), 25 miles away, to study at the yeshiva there.  After his bar mitzvah, he and the rest of his family left Russia, emigrating to Winnipeg by way of Hamburg.  UC's In Memoriam describes the next years starting in Winnipeg:

After but two years in a simple elementary school he graduated from the eighth grade. Thereafter he went to Saskatchewan, where he first supported himself teaching Judaism to the children of a local family. Later he settled a 120-acre homestead with a local blacksmith. While a homesteader, he taught Hebrew to monks of a nearby monastery, who wished to read the Bible in Hebrew. In 1921 he returned to Winnepeg, and, sensing the need of further education moved to New York City where he earned his living as an electrician's apprentice while simultaneously--by home study--preparing himself for the State of New York Regent's Examination and the College Boards. He passed both examinations with no formal high school training, and thereupon, in 1923, departed for California and enrolled in chemistry on the Berkeley campus, graduating with honors in 1927.

Michael's mother, Wynona Appleman (née Kirkpatrick), came from quite a different background.  Her father was Thomas Ward Kirkpatrick, a Canadian of Scotch-Irish extraction.  Her mother, Rose Donnelly, was originally from New York and of Irish Catholic background.  Thomas was proprietor of "Miners House and Horseshoe Saloon" in Dawson City in 1898 and "Bank Hotel" in 1901, and was a gold prospector. 

                                                    
Thomas joined the Canadian armed forces during WWI, serving in the No. 3 Canadian Tunnelling Co., while Rose and the three daughters moved to the Bay area of California.  At some point after the war, Thomas returned to prospecting in Canada.  He lived alone in a cabin in the woods in Cairo Township, Matachewan, Ontario, near Elk Lake.  He died in late Nov. 1933 "a short distance from his cabin where he had been loading fire-wood on a toboggan, and while stooping over to tie on the load had evidently expired from heart failure" (Elk Lake Speaker, Dec. 6, 1933).  Rose Kirkpatrick died Dec. 11, 1948 in California.

Wynona was born in Dawson, Yukon Territory, Canada on June 25, 1900 and had two sisters, Eulalia and Elizabeth.  Wynona was something of a tomboy growing up.  She formed one half of the first graduating class of Dawson High School in 1917.  Wynona entered the University of California Berkeley, intending to study engineering.  However, she became interested in biology, and eventually earned a Master’s degree in biochemistry.

David and Wynona met while at Berkeley and married on Sept. 23, 1926, both aged 26.  Their first son Daniel was born April 11, 1931, followed by Michael on June 13, 1933 and Gerry on July 19, 1936.