We have analysed archival ROSAT PSPC and Einstein HRI data for the x-ray point source in the bar of NGC 6822 .
The source decreased in x-ray flux by at least half an order of magnitude in the 13 years between the HRI and PSPC observations .
It has a PSPC flux of f _ { X } \approx 8 \times 10 ^ { -14 } ~ { } { erg~ { } cm ^ { -2 } ~ { } s ^ { -1 } } , giving L _ { X } \approx 2.4 \times 10 ^ { 36 } ~ { } { erg~ { } s ^ { -1 } } for a distance of 500 kpc .
The source appears to be related to the optical emission-line object Ho 12 .
It is unclear if Ho 12 is an \ion H2 region or a supernova remnant , although the latter interpretation is better supported by the available optical data .
The x-rays are unlikely to be direct emission from a supernova remnant , due to the observed strong x-ray variability .
The x-ray spectrum of the source is very soft .
Acceptable fits are found for either a Raymond-Smith thermal model with kT \approx 0.56 keV , or a blackbody model with kT \approx 0.06 keV .
The latter model would place the source amongst the class of Super-Soft x-ray sources first found in the Magellanic Clouds .
If the thermal model is correct , the source appears similar to Galactic and Magellanic Cloud stellar-mass black hole binary candidates .
We have identified a list of potential optical counterparts from published photometry .
However , for either model discussed above , we expect the apparent magnitude of the optical counterpart to be in the range 21.5 \la m _ { V } \la 24.0 .
Thus the optical counterpart may be below the limit of published photometry .