His father, Ferenc Ghyczy (1756-1838), was the first vicecomes and envoy of the Diet of Komárom County. The Ghyczy family had a decisive influence on the daily life as well as the power and political relations of the county. His brother, Kálmán Ghyczy, was a politician, Member of Parliament and elected Speaker of the House of Representatives four times. Ignácz Ghyczy’s wife was Borbála Laszlovszky (1803–1881). Their sons were Géza Ghyczy (engineer, professor at the University of Technology), Béla (imperial and royal lieutenant-general, member of the House of Magnates), Imre (Hungarian noble bodyguard, captain of hussars in 1848-1849), Gyula (president of the Budapest Bar Association), Dénes (Hungarian royal court counsellor, MP, vicecomes of Komárom County). They had one daughter, Ida.
Ghyczy studied law and qualified as a lawyer in 1822. After that, he became the prosecutor of the treasury estate of Bábolna and he was a farm officer in the Tata and Gestes estates of the Esterházy counts from 1827 up until 1848, when he became captain of the Tata National Guard, and in this capacity fought at the Battle of Schwechat. In autumn 1849, he took over the management of the farms of Archdukes Stephen and Joseph. He retired in 1864. From 1865 until his death, he served as a Member of Parliament for the Tata district. One of his achievements here was to increase seed and fodder production, and expand animal husbandry. He advocated the modernisation of the forestry industry and primarily the abolition of forest compossessorates. He significantly contributed to the success of the Hungarian Economic Association. He set up a distillery and brewery in Tata.
Ignácz Ghyczy was a famous Hungarian book collector. After his death, his children donated his library of some 14,500 volumes to the Library of the House of Representatives (today: Library of the Hungarian Parliament).
