Icek Hochman (b.1755) - The Bernstein-Dahne Genealogy Wiki

# Icek Hochman (b.1755)  > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **7x great-grandfather** ![[I512273.jpg|220]] **Born** ~1755 **Died** 06/11/1825 · House #17 — [[Bychawa]] **Parents** [[Mortka Hochman (d.1787)]] · [[Chana (b.1722)]] **Spouses** [[Ryfka (d.1817)]] · [[Maryanka Wolwowa (b.1759)]] **Children** [[Ruchla Hofman (b.1783)]] · [[Mortka Hochman (b.1787)]] · [[Abram Hochman (b.1791)]] **📸 Media — from MyHeritage** ![[I512273_1.jpg|180]] *GEDCOM I512273 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01*  ## Narrative Icek Hochman — Icek Hofman, as the civil register spelled him — was a leaseholder of [[Bychawa]], the small Lublin-region town where he lived and died. He was born about 1755, the son of [[Mortka Hochman (d.1787)]] and [[Chana (b.1722)]].[^parents] His trade was that of an *arędarz* — an *arendarz*, a lessee, the man who held a manorial or town concession (very often the tavern and propination lease); it is the word his 1825 death act uses of him, and it marks him, like so many Jewish householders of the private towns, as a holder of the lord's or the town's rented rights.[^death] He may first surface in the record forty years before his death, as a property-owner in the Bychawa marketplace. On 13 July 1785, before the Bychawa town court, two Jews — "Icek Markowicz" and Majerek Cyrkowicz — bought a new **corner house** on the market square, with all its fittings (windows, doors, hinges, a table, a cupboard and a brick chimney), from the deputy-judge Wincenty, for eight hundred Polish złoty in perpetuity, the deed giving them full right to sell or bequeath it as their own.[^purchase] The buyer signed in Hebrew as "Icchak, son of R. Mordechai" — son of Mordka — which fits our Icek, son of Mortka, and would make him a market-square householder in his early thirties; the identification is probable but not certain, resting on the patronymic, the town, and the era.[^purchase] He married twice. His first wife was [[Ryfka (d.1817)]]; after her death he married **[[Maryanka Wolwowa (b.1759)]]**, herself a widow — his death act calls her "Maria, by her first marriage Wolfowa."[^death] That second wife ties two threads of the family together: the same Maryanka, widowed again when Icek died in 1825, married the following spring the Bełżyce shopkeeper [[Chaim Winer (b.1775)]], so that one woman was in turn the wife of a Wolw, of Icek Hochman, and of Chaim Winer.[^maryanka] Icek's children were [[Ruchla Hofman (b.1783)]], [[Mortka Hochman (b.1787)]] and [[Abram Hochman (b.1791)]]; through his daughter Ruchla, who married the innkeeper [[Abram Abus Goldrajch (b.1783)]], his line runs on toward Ozzy.[^children] He died on 11 June 1825, at nine in the morning, in house No. 17 in Bychawa, aged seventy, of dropsy (*puchlina*).[^death] The death was reported to the registrar the next day by two men of the family: his son **Abram Hofman**, aged thirty-four, and his son-in-law **"Abuś"** — Abram Abus Goldrajch — aged thirty-nine, both householders of Bychawa; neither could write.[^death] [^parents]: Son of [[Mortka Hochman (d.1787)]] and [[Chana (b.1722)]] (GEDCOM/MyHeritage). The 1785 deed's Hebrew signature "Icchak son of R. Mordechai" (see [^purchase]) supports the patronymic (son of Mortka/Mordechai). Born ~1755 (from the age "70" in his 1825 death act). [^death]: Death record of Icek Hofman [Hochman], Bychawa 1825, akt No. 36 (read directly from the full-resolution scan; Polish). Registered 12 June 1825: "umarł Icek Hofman Arędarz [leaseholder], lat mający siedemdziesiąt [70]… Mąż Maryi pierwszego zamęścia Wolfowey, w puchlinie [of dropsy]," died 11 June 1825 at 9 a.m. in house No. 17, Bychawa. Reporters: "Abuś Goldrey [Goldrajch], lat 39," son-in-law of the deceased, and "Abram Hofman, lat 34," son of the deceased — both householders (*gospodarze*) of Bychawa, neither able to write. [scan](https://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/1a6fadd9243dc665249fd5caa00dda0533ce3f5321e72769a3911944aca9e7c5) [^purchase]: Bychawa town-court deed, 13 July 1785 (read directly from the full-resolution scan; Polish + two Hebrew signatures). "Donacyja niewiernych Icka Marthowicza [Markowicza] y Majerka Cyrkowicza" — the Jews Icek Markowicz and Majerek Cyrkowicz buy a new corner house (*domostwo narożne*) on the Bychawa market square, with all fittings, from the deputy-judge (*podsędek*) Wincenty, for 800 Polish złoty in perpetuity. Icek's Hebrew signature reads "יצחק … מרדכי" — Icchak son of (R.) Mordechai. Probable but not certain identification with this Icek Hochman (son of [[Mortka Hochman (d.1787)]]): rests on patronymic + town + era. [scan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/d2a71ffc79c466b09baeaa4653cf1c7a3be2760d1c35214cd732dcb526f518dc) [^maryanka]: [[Maryanka Wolwowa (b.1759)]] appears as Icek's second wife (his 1825 death act: "Maria, by first marriage Wolfowa") and, in the tree, as the third wife of [[Chaim Winer (b.1775)]] of [[Bełżyce]], whom she married in April 1826 — the year after Icek's death (Chaim Winer's 1826 marriage act, read on that profile). One widow across three marriages. [^children]: Children per the GEDCOM/MyHeritage record: [[Ruchla Hofman (b.1783)]] (m. [[Abram Abus Goldrajch (b.1783)]] — the son-in-law who reported Icek's death), [[Mortka Hochman (b.1787)]] and [[Abram Hochman (b.1791)]] (the son who co-reported the death). ## Research *(your reasoning — preserved across every rebuild)* - **Two records read directly 2026-07-06:** - **1825 death act (Bychawa akt 36)** — "Icek Hofman, Arędarz [leaseholder], aged 70," d. 11 June 1825, house No. 17, of dropsy; husband of Maria (née/1st-m. Wolfowa = [[Maryanka Wolwowa (b.1759)]]). Reporters: son [[Abram Hochman (b.1791)]] (34) and son-in-law "Abuś Goldrajch" (= [[Abram Abus Goldrajch (b.1783)]], 39). Surname spelled **Hofman** here. - **1785 Bychawa corner-house purchase** — "Icek Markowicz" + Majerek Cyrkowicz buy a market-square corner house for 800 złp; Icek signs "יצחק … מרדכי" (son of Mordechai). Probable = this Icek (son of Mortka); patronymic-based, flagged. - **Cross-connection:** his 2nd wife [[Maryanka Wolwowa (b.1759)]] = the 3rd wife of [[Chaim Winer (b.1775)]] (m. 1826, the year after Icek died) — the same widow across three marriages. - **Name/patronymic variants:** Hochman / **Hofman** (death act); patronymic Markowicz / Mordkowicz (son of Mortka). ## Evidence - **1825 Bychawa death act (akt 36) — "Icek Hofman, Arędarz [leaseholder], aged 70."** Died house No. 17, of dropsy; reported by his son Abram and son-in-law "Abuś" Goldrajch. [scan](https://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/1a6fadd9243dc665249fd5caa00dda0533ce3f5321e72769a3911944aca9e7c5) ![[IcekHochman_1825_death_Bychawa_akt36.jpg]] *Bychawa death akt 36 (reg. 12 June 1825): "umarł Icek Hofman Arędarz lat mający siedemdziesiąt… Mąż Maryi pierwszego zamęścia Wolfowey, w puchlinie" — witnessed by son Abram Hofman (34) and son-in-law Abuś Goldrajch (39).* ## Open questions - **1785 corner-house buyer = this Icek?** The Hebrew signature "son of Mordechai" and the Bychawa market-square setting fit (Icek ~30 in 1785, son of Mortka), but the identification is not proven — a house that later records tie to Icek (e.g. house No. 17 at his death) would confirm it. - **Birth year ~1755** rests on the death act's "aged 70" (round number) — a birth or marriage act would refine it. - **First wife [[Ryfka (d.1817)]]** — her marriage/death acts not yet read; sequence of the two marriages vs the children's births to confirm. - **Additional MyHeritage-bio scan leads (not yet read/incorporated; preserved 2026-07-06):** [Marriage to Marianna - akta 12](https://szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/skan/-/skan/d8fe875c2fce6b5a35186f416e86c03b62f8aaf4a91eef89db1c24f8d7c8d51e)