Isaac (Yitschak ben Eliezer Chayes) Polyatscek

There is no explicit reference to Ephraim and Lazar being sons of Isaac. The 1808 census of Jews (Conscriptio Judaeorum) in Huncovce is the first to mention Ephraim and Lazar Polacsek. Ephrajem Polatzek and Lazar Polatsek are the only two Polatseks mentioned in Huncovce in the 1828 property tax list. This suggests that they were well-off, like Isaac. Like Isaac, Ephraim's son Aron the son and son-in-law Marcus Oestereicher both were heads of the local Jewish community (ראש קהל).

After the tolerance tax list of 1788/89, the son of Lazarus, Isaac Polatschek, is the only head of a Pollatschek household left in Huncovce. Thus, he is the only candidate for being the father of Ephraim and lazar.The name of Ephraim's son, Isack Pollatschek, who was born around 1818, also suggests that he was a son of Isaac. There appear to have been at least three cousins called Ephraim. Marcus, a younger brother of Isaac, had a son called Ephraim. Abraham, an older brother of Isaac, may also have had a son Ephraim.

Segal, Yehezkel, Torat Yehezkel, Abraham Singer (ed.), Pecs, 1899: "When he [Yehezkel] returned to his home town ... he married Scheindel, the daughter of ... Isaac Fried from Unsdorf [=Huncovce] ... who was the grandson of Isaac Hayut, the head of the rabbinic tribunal in Skalia, Poland" (Introduction. p. 3).

Abraham Singer also states, "He [Isaac Hayut Jr. who composed the book of 'Zera Yitzhak' on the Mishnah (Frankfurt, 1732)] was the son of R. Jacob Hayut" (Introduction. p. 3).

Rabbi Schlesinger in his introduction to Torat Yehezkel identifies the head of theJewish community in Huncovce Isaac Chajes with Isaac Fried. Contemporary sources, however, show that this cannot be correct. A tombstone from Huncovce shows that Yitschak Chajes is to be indentified with Isaac Pollatschek instead. His daughter Tuschene Monasch née Pollatschek died in Huncovce on Sept. 4, 1836 at the age of 36. Her tombstone calls her Tuschene bat Yitschak Chayes (טושנה בת יצחק חיות).

Tuschene's tombstone is not the only one to confirm the identity of Chajes with Pollatscheck. There are at least two additional tombstones which identify Chajes with Pollatschek: Eizik ben Ephraim Chajes Pollatschek (איציק בן אפרים חיות פאלאטשעק), who died in Toponár in 1835; and Chaya Reich bat Asher Chajes Pollatschek (חיה רייך בת חיות פאלאטשעק), who died in Gálszécs in 1909.

There is also negative evidence. The census of Jewish households in 1771, 1774, 1782,and 1808 and the annual tolerance tax lists from 1786/7 to 1794/5 for Huncovce, do not mention an Isaac Fried. Instead they mention an Isaac Pollatschek, who was born in Hungary in 1747 and a son of Lazarus (according to the 1771 census).

The 1768 census of Jews (in Latin: Conscriptio Judaeorum) does not mention Isaac yet. The 1771 census is the first to mention Isaac Pollatschek. Thus, he married in the years 1768-71. He is mentioned in Huncovce, called Hunszdorf in the census, in the following years: 1771: Isaac Polyatscek (No. 6), born in Hungary in 1747, 1 daughter age 1, 2 servants, son of Lazarus. He is listed after his brother Abrahamus (No. 5). The census mentions that his father (No. 3) was a big merchant ("in Latin: majorem mercium exercit"), whereas Isaac was a small merchant, like his brother ("praevio modo ut frater"). His father belonged to the higher-status "boni", whereas Isaac was classified as belonging to the lower-status "comodi". 1774: Isak Polacsek (no. 10), with 1 daughter under 16 and 2 servants, is listed after (his father) Lazar and (brother) Markus (No. 9). His father was listed as a first-class merchant, whereas Isak was listed as a second-class merchant ("mercator 2ae classis"). 1782: Izak Polyacsek (No. 3), wife, 1 son, 3 daughters, 1 servant. 1808: Isaac Polatsek (No. 88), with wife, 2 sons, 2 daughters and 2 servants. Isaac also appears in the annual tolerance tax lists (in German: Toleranzgebührer) of Huncovce, called Hundsdorf in the lists, for nine consecutive years from 1786/87 until 1794/95. The tax lists only provide the name of the head of the household. Like the census, households are listed in geographical order. In 1786/87 Isaac Polatschek is listed between his father Lazarus and his brother Abraham. In 1787/88 and 1788/89 he is listed after his father, but from 1789/90 to 1794/95 he is always listed first.

Reference:
Jona Schellekens & Vivian Kahn, “Using censes records for 18th-century Jewish family history: The example of Polatschek in Hunfalu (Slovakia)”, Avotaynu XXVII (Summer 2021), number 2, 44-52.