# Icek Balter (b.1771) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **5x great-grandfather** ![[I507497.jpg|220]] **Born** ~1771 — [[Siemiatycze]] **Died** 06/21/1831 — [[Łęczna]] **Parents** [[Szyia Segal (b.1740)]] · [[Laja (b.1750)]] **Spouse** [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]] **Children** [[Szol Balter (b.1800)]] · [[Berek Balter (b.1807)]] · [[Fajga Balter (d.1831)]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I507497_1.jpg|180]] ![[I507497_2.jpg|180]] **Documents — from MyHeritage:** [[I507497_doc0.pdf|📄 AI Biography™ - Yitzchak Balter]] *GEDCOM I507497 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative Icek Balter — "Icek ha-Levi," as he signed himself — is the man in whom two of Ozzy's Łęczna lines join: he carried the **Levite Segal descent** down from the Ciechanowiec rabbinate, and by marriage he entered the **Blufogel** family of Łęczna. He was born about 1771–75 in [[Siemiatycze]], the son of [[Szyia Segal (b.1740)]] and [[Laja (b.1750)]]; his father was of that Podlasie town where the ha-Levi/Segal dynasty had held the rabbinate, and the family were Levites — a descent Icek marked every time he set his name to a document as *ha-Levi*.[^parents][^halevi] From Siemiatycze he came south to [[Łęczna]] in the Lublin region, where he lived out his life and died.[^death] At Łęczna he married **[[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]]**, a daughter of the propertied Łęczna householders [[Eyzyk Blufogel (b.1745)]] and [[Raca (b.1744)]]. That marriage is caught in the family's affairs in the arbitration of 1807, when Raca — widowed — and her children divided the family's **brick house among the market stalls on the Rynek Wygonowy**: the widow kept the main house for her life, while "**Icko … ha-Levi Balter**" and his wife Zlota Dwojra took the rear rooms of the house and the right to keep a tavern there during the June and September fairs.[^arbitration] The couple's children were [[Szol Balter (b.1800)]], [[Berek Balter (b.1807)]], a daughter Fajga, and Esther, born 1825.[^children] Through his son Berek — remembered in print as "**Dov Ber ha-Levi Balter**," reckoned a descendant of the gaon Issakhar Berisz ha-Levi of Ciechanowiec — Icek's Levite line runs on, and it is that same ha-Levi thread, borne down from [[Szyia Segal (b.1740)]] and [[Issakhar Berisz Segal (b.1690)]], that his own signature confirms.[^halevi] Icek Balter died in Łęczna on **21 June 1831, at nine in the evening**, aged about fifty-six. The death was reported the next morning by two of his neighbours — Manes Zylber, a farmer of forty, and Michel Weinberger, a farmer of thirty-four — who came before the Łęczna registrar and, as the act records, gave his parentage in full: "**son of Laja and Szyja, spouses of the city of Siemiatycze**," leaving a widow, Złota, two sons, Szoel and Berek, and a daughter, Fajga.[^death] It is that single record — his own death act, naming his Siemiatycze parents — that fixes the descent of the Łęczna Balters back into the Segal line.[^death] [^parents]: Son of [[Szyia Segal (b.1740)]] and [[Laja (b.1750)]] of [[Siemiatycze]] — stated in his 1831 death act (below), which names his parents "Szyja and Laja, spouses of the city of Siemiatycze." Born ~1771 (frontmatter) / ~1775 (from the death act's age 56 in 1831). The upward link from Szyia to [[Issakhar Berisz Segal (b.1690)]] is inferred (see Szyia's profile); the Siemiatycze parentage here is the proven anchor. [^halevi]: Icek signs "**Icek ha-Levi**" (signature image on this profile, "Icek haLevi's signature"), and appears in the 1807 arbitration as "Icko … ha-Levi Balter" — the Levite marker (*ha-Levi* = the Segal/*s'gan levi* descent). Consistent with his son [[Berek Balter (b.1807)]] being named in *Kos Yeshuot* as "Dov Ber **ha-Levi** Balter," a descendant of the gaon Issakhar Berisz ha-Levi of Ciechanowiec ([[Issakhar Berisz Segal (b.1690)]]). [^death]: Death record of Icek Balter ("Icek Butter"), Łęczna 1831, akt No. 58 (read directly from the full-resolution scan; Baginski translation on the profile agrees). Registered 22 June 1831: Icek died 21 June 1831 at 9 p.m., resident of Łęczna, aged 56, "son of Laja and Szyja, spouses of the city of [[Siemiatycze]]," leaving a widow Złota, sons Szoel ([[Szol Balter (b.1800)]]) and Berek ([[Berek Balter (b.1807)]]), and daughter Fajga. Reported by neighbours Manes Zylber (farmer, 40) and Michel Weinberger (farmer, 34); registrar Zakrzewski. [scan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/eefe6dbe79adc5cdef25bedab8fef76ff31055b1ee006caa8349b066140d426c) [^arbitration]: 1807 family arbitration settlement of the Blufogel brick house on the Rynek Wygonowy, Łęczna (notarial act, jedn. 1753843, [cur=226](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/1753843?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=226) — cited as akta 104/105). The widow [[Raca (b.1744)]] kept the main house for life; her daughter [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]] and "Icko … ha-Levi Balter" (Icek) took the rear rooms and fair-time tavern rights. Detailed on [[Raca (b.1744)]] and [[Eyzyk Blufogel (b.1745)]]. [^children]: Wife [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]] (daughter of [[Eyzyk Blufogel (b.1745)]] & [[Raca (b.1744)]]); children [[Szol Balter (b.1800)]], [[Berek Balter (b.1807)]], [[Fajga Balter (d.1831)]], and Esther Balter (b.1825, per the "Esther Balter birth 1825" record image on this profile). ## Research *(your reasoning — preserved across every rebuild)* - **1831 death act (Łęczna akt 58) read directly** — "Icek Butter [Balter]," d. 21 June 1831, aged 56, **son of Szyja and Laja of Siemiatycze**, widow Złota, sons Szol & Berek, daughter Fajga; witnesses Manes Zylber (40) + Michel Weinberger (34). The anchor record for the Balter → Segal descent (via father [[Szyia Segal (b.1740)]]). Image in Evidence. - **Levite (ha-Levi):** he signs "Icek ha-Levi" and is "Icko … ha-Levi Balter" in the 1807 arbitration — confirming the Segal/*s'gan levi* descent that his grandson-line (Berek → *Kos Yeshuot*) traces to [[Issakhar Berisz Segal (b.1690)]]. - **Marriage into the Blufogel family:** wife [[Zlota Dwojra Blufogel (b.1779)]], daughter of [[Eyzyk Blufogel (b.1745)]] & [[Raca (b.1744)]]; the 1807 arbitration places the couple in Raca's Rynek-Wygonowy brick house. - Birth-year: ~1771 (frontmatter) vs ~1775 (death-act age 56). Left open. ## Evidence - **1831 Łęczna death act (akt 58) — Icek Balter, son of Szyja and Laja of Siemiatycze.** Names the widow Złota, sons Szol & Berek, daughter Fajga. [scan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/eefe6dbe79adc5cdef25bedab8fef76ff31055b1ee006caa8349b066140d426c) ![[IcekBalter_1831_death_Leczna_akt58.jpg]] *Łęczna death akt 58 (reg. 22 June 1831): "Icek Butter… lat pięćdziesiąt sześć… syn Laji i Szyi małżonków z Miasta Siemiatycz," leaving widow Złota and children Szoel, Berek and Fajga — the record fixing his Siemiatycze parentage.* ## Open questions - **Birth year ~1771 vs ~1775** — frontmatter vs the death-act age (56 in 1831). A Siemiatycze birth record (~1771–75) would settle it. - **Unread scan on the profile** — an additional szukajwarchiwach scan cited in the family biography without label; not yet read. [scan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/83f3aa71b5eb4417b3013b5b9cb4571531d60452475e29bf0a903bd05f6cdfdf) - **Icek's own signature/patronymic form** — read the "Icek haLevi's signature" image and the 1807 arbitration to confirm how his patronymic (Szyjowicz vs the "Oszyowicz" variant seen elsewhere) is written.