# Ita (b.1741) <!-- AUTO:BEGIN — generated from GEDCOM; do not edit, overwritten on rebuild --> > 🔵 **Bernstein — Ozzy's side** · Relationship to Ozzy: **6x great-grandmother** **Born** ~1741 **Died** 02/19/1824 · House #215 — [[Łęczna]] **Spouse** [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] **Children** [[Pejsach Edelsztajn (b.1764)]] · [[Chaja Edelsztajn (b.1769)]] · [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779)]] · [[Frajda Edelsztajn (b.1785)]] *GEDCOM I518990 · Bernstein tree · synced 2026-07-01* <!-- AUTO:END --> ## Narrative The woman recorded here under the name **Ita** was the wife of [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] — "Rubin Iłowicz," one of the leading Jewish lessees of the private town of [[Łęczna]]: a municipal citizen who at various times held the town's slaughterhouse-and-meat-stall concession, its distillery, mill and brewery, and, in syndicate, its whole propination revenue. As the mistress of that household she stood at the centre of one of the town's more substantial Jewish establishments, though the records let us see her almost entirely through the men and children around her. Her own name is the first puzzle she leaves. The one document that speaks of her directly — her death act — calls her **Esterka**; her daughter [[Chaja Edelsztajn (b.1769)]]'s record gives the mother as **Eta**; her son [[Pejsach Edelsztajn (b.1764)]]'s death record names his mother **Tyla**; and her son [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779)]]'s marriage and death records call her **Hinda**.[^names] The "Hinda" is almost certainly a slip — Hinda was the name of Chaim's own first wife — and "Tyla" is suspect too, because a **Tyla appears in Rubin's family inheritance record as his *stepmother*** (Elo Rubinowicz's widow), so it is easy to see how a clerk or informant could have carried the elder woman's name onto the wrong generation.[^names] What survives, then, is a cluster of names — Esterka / Eta / Ita / Tyla / Hinda — behind a single woman, with no maiden name and no parents preserved in any of them. She was the mother of Rubin's children [[Pejsach Edelsztajn (b.1764)]], [[Chaja Edelsztajn (b.1769)]], [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779)]], [[Frajda Edelsztajn (b.1785)]] and [[Sanel Edelsztajn (b.1788)]] — the direct line running through Pejsach and his descendants. She was widowed on **16 June 1817**, when Rubin died in **House No. 214** in Łęczna.[^rubin] She herself died nearly seven years later, on **19 February 1824**, at five in the afternoon, aged **eighty-two**, in **House No. 215** — the house immediately next to the one in which her husband had died.[^death] That closeness of the two houses is itself the strongest thread tying "Esterka Rubinowa, widow" to Rubin's wife. Her death was reported four days later, on 25 February, to Andrzej Paczowski, the parish priest of Łęczna serving as civil registrar, by two Jewish townsmen — **Szmul Leybowicz**, aged thirty-six, and **Jankiel Berkowicz**, aged seventy-three — who both signed the act in Hebrew.[^death] Her recorded age places her birth around 1742. [^death]: Death act no. 20, Łęczna civil register (Roman-Catholic parish acting as registrar), dated 25 February 1824, read directly from the scan. Declarants **Szmul Leybowicz** (36) and **Jankiel Berkowicz** (73), both of Łęczna, before registrar/parish-priest Andrzej Paczowski, declared that on **19 February 1824 at 5 p.m.** the *Starozakonna* (Jewish) **Esterka Rubinowa, widow (wdowa)**, aged **82**, died in the house under **No. 215**. Both declarants signed in Hebrew. Scan: [jednostka 2231957, akta 20, scan 6](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/2231957?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=6). [^names]: The mother of Rubin Edelsztajn's children is named inconsistently across the family's records: **Esterka** (her own 1824 death act, the strongest source), **Eta** (in [[Chaja Edelsztajn (b.1769)]]'s / Chaja Gransheim's record), **Tyla** (in [[Pejsach Edelsztajn (b.1764)]]'s death record), and **Hinda** (in [[Chaim Edelsztajn (b.1779)]]'s second-marriage and death records). "Hinda" duplicates the name of Chaim's own first wife and is almost certainly an error; "Tyla" is the name of Rubin's **stepmother** (widow of his father [[Elo Rubinowicz (b.1719)]]) in Rubin's inheritance record, and so is likely a mis-attribution across generations — noting, however, that Pejsach did give one of his own daughters the name Tyla. No maiden name or parents are recorded in any version. [^rubin]: [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] died 16 June 1817 in **House #214**, Łęczna (death act no. 29) — the house adjacent to No. 215, where his widow died in 1824. ## Research - **Death, 1824, Łęczna (death act no. 20).** Read directly from the scan. *Starozakonna* **Esterka Rubinowa**, widow, aged **82**, died **19 February 1824** at 5 p.m. in **House No. 215**, Łęczna; act registered 25 February 1824 before parish-priest/registrar Andrzej Paczowski; declarants **Szmul Leybowicz** (36) and **Jankiel Berkowicz** (73), both of Łęczna, who signed in Hebrew. Age 82 → birth c. 1742. No maiden name or parents given. Source: [jednostka 2231957, akta 20, scan 6](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/2231957?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=6). - **Identification.** She died in House **#215**, one door from House **#214** where her husband [[Rubin Edelsztajn (b.1744)]] had died in 1817 — the proximity, plus her styling as "Rubinowa, widow," makes the identification as Rubin's wife highly secure even though her death act gives no patronymic. - **Recorded name variants** of Rubin's wife across the family's records: **Esterka** (her own death act), **Eta** (Chaja's record), **Tyla** (Pejsach's death record; also the name of Rubin's stepmother), **Hinda** (Chaim's records — probably confused with Chaim's first wife), and **Ita** (vault head-form). ## Evidence - **1824 death act (Łęczna, no. 20)** — Esterka Rubinowa, widow, aged 82, died 19 Feb 1824 in House #215, Łęczna. Her own death record; fixes her death, approximate birth year (c. 1742), widowhood, and the "Esterka" form of her name. ![[EsterkaRubinowa_1824_death_Leczna_akt20.jpg]] *Death act no. 20, Łęczna civil register, 25 February 1824 — death of "Esterka Rubinowa, wdowa," aged 82, in House No. 215 ([szukajwarchiwach scan](https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/jednostka/-/jednostka/2231957?p_p_id=Jednostka&_Jednostka_delta=1&_Jednostka_cur=6)).* ## Open questions - **Her given name.** Four different names appear for Rubin's wife across the family records (Esterka / Eta / Tyla / Hinda), with "Ita" as the vault head-form. Her own death act's **Esterka** is the strongest single attestation; "Hinda" and "Tyla" are probably clerical confusions (with Chaim's first wife, and with Rubin's stepmother, respectively). Whether "Ita/Eta" and "Esterka" are two names of one woman, a misreading, or evidence of more than one wife for Rubin remains open. *This requires more research* (per the family's own note). - **Maiden name / parents unknown.** No record yet found names her father or her birth family, so her ancestry is a dead end pending a marriage record for her and Rubin (or a birth record). - **One wife or two?** Rubin's profile notes a possible second wife whose name is not recovered. Esterka (d. 1824, House #215) is taken to be his wife on the house-proximity evidence; confirming she is the mother of all the listed children (vs. a second marriage) needs the children's birth records.