Georg Händel ˈhɛndəl was a barber-surgeon and the father of Georg Frideric Handel. As a young man he had to stop attending grammar school when his father Valentin died (1636) and had to give up his aspirations to become a lawyer. It is very unlikely he ever succeeded in finishing a medical study and without a degree he was not allowed to call himself a physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

.

In 1643, he married a widow, Anna Kathe, who twelve years older than he was. They had three sons and three daughters: Dorothea Elisabet, Gottfried, Christoph, Anna Barbara, Karl and Sophia Rosina. The couple lived in a village called Neumarkt, south of Saalkreis

Saalkreis

Saalkreis was a district in the south of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Neighboring districts were Mansfelder Land, Bernburg, Köthen, Bitterfeld, the district Delitzsch in the Free State of Saxony, and the district Merseburg-Querfurt...

. Around 1657 he was appointed by August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels

August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels

Augustus of Saxe-Weissenfels , was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt of the House of Wettin and administrator of the archbishopric of Magdeburg....

 as his surgeon. In 1666 he bought a tavern The Yellow Deer. In 1672 he was given a license to serve wine, and also owned a vineyard outside the city walls. After his wife died in 1682, he married Dorothea Taust (1651–1730) in 1683. She was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in Giebichenstein

Giebichenstein

The Giebichenstein in Stöckse, Germany, is one of the biggest erratic blocks of Northern Germany. A picture of the Giebichenstein is part of the emblem of Stöckse....

. In 1685 George Friedrich Handel was born; in 1687 Dorothea Sophia was baptized; in 1690 Johanna Christiana, who died in 1709.

According to John Mainwaring

John Mainwaring

John Mainwaring was an English theologian and the first biographer of the composer Georg Friedrich Händel in any language. He was a Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and became rector of the parish of Church Stretton, Shropshire, and, later professor of Divinity at Cambridge...

, Handel's first biographer, "Handel had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed. He strictly forbad him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey'd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep". One day Handel and his father went on a trip to Weissenfels to visit either his son (Handel's half-brother) Carl, or grandson (Handel's nephew) Georg Christian who was serving as a valet to Duke Johann Adolf I

Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels

Johann Adolf I, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels , was a duke of Saxe-Weissenfels-Querfurt and member of the House of Wettin....

. According to legend, the young Handel attracted the attention of the Duke with his playing on the church organ. At his urging, Handel's father permitted him to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of the Lutheran Marienkirche.