Sztencl had one brother, the Yiddish poet Avraham Nochum, and two sisters, Esther and Tsime.

[3][4] In 1897, several months before his bar mitzvah, Shlomo traveled to Berzeznitz to study with its Chief Rabbi, Yaakov Yosef HaCohen Rabinovitch, author of Emes LeYaakov.

[6] Several days after his eighteenth birthday in 1902, Sztencl married Miriam Bayla, daughter of Rabbi Efraim Mordechai Mottel Zweigenhaft.

[6] Following his marriage, Sztencl began writing a diary, in which he kept a cheshbon hanefesh (lit.

The book was entitled Chidushei Hagaon M'sosnovitz (Novelle of the Genius of Sosnowiec).