Rivka Volozhin

Ancestor of the Soloveitchik dynasty.

The Soloveitchik family includes many significant rabbinical forebears, most notably Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, famed Talmudist and founder of the Volozhin yeshiva.

Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner ( 1749-1821), was a student of the Vilna Gaon, and thus some students of Brisk talk of a line of tradition extending "from Moses at Sinai, to Joshua, to the Elders ... to the Vilna Gaon, to Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, and then to the Soloveitchik dynasty."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Soloveitchik (see bio)

Most scholars, however, begin the Soloveitchik dynasty with Rabbi Joseph Dov (HaLevi) Soloveitchik known as the Beis HaLevi (see below), as he was the first rabbi of Brisk surnamed Soloveitchik. More significantly, the "Brisker style" described below can already be found to some degree in the Beis HaLevi's works, which is not the case for earlier ancestors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosef_Dov_Soloveitchik_(Beis_Halevi) (see bio)

All members of the Soloveitchik family are descended from the tribe of Levi and thus sometimes go by the descriptor "HaLevi".

The surname "Soloveitchik", in fact, is Polish for "nightingale"; it was chosen by the family because the primary duty of the Levites in the Temple in Jerusalem was singing. (Note that the surname "Soloveitchik" can be spelled either as presented, or as "Soloveichik", without the "t".

http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/Jewish_Dynasties

ר' חיים נולד לאביו יצחק בן חיים, שהיה פרנס הקהילה בוולוז'ין ולאמו רבקה, בת רבי יוסף רפפורט, בנו של רבי שמחה הכהן רפפורט