Los Treacy y el Dresden by Linda Koenig

My mother’s father was born in Ireland in 1903. My father’s parents were of German extraction, though they were born in Austria-Hungary and Rumania. They came in the 1020s. Thus, three of my four grandparents came through Ellis Island.

My mother’s mother was born in Elizabeth, NJ in 1906. Her family came to Union County from Germany in 1860, three years after Union County was incorporated.

We’ve been here ever since.

I live in Garwood, NJ, about 20 miles west of NY City. My father was born in this town. We have lived on the same street since 1944.

I have worked as an editor, journalist and college instructor. I am quite involved in my community and have been elected five times to the local school board.

I said, earlier, that my grandfather was born in Ireland in 1903. However, his parents met and were married in Buenos Aires in 1901.

I didn’t realize, until this year, that they both went to Argentina on the Dresden. However, they didn’t meet until later.

Their first child, Kathleen, was born in Buenos Aires, in Dec. 1901. Then they decided to go to the United States, and it was easier to get here from Ireland than Argentina. So, they went there.

My grandfather, their eldest son, was six weeks old when they came to the USA. They had 10 more children here. Thus, their first three children were born on three different continents in three different countries.

My great-grandfather, Patrick Treacy, had a sister, Johanna. She married Jose Peña, who was born in the Canary Islands. She and Jose came to the USA in 1912, with four children. They had 10 children who lived to adulthood.

When Johanna came, she and her family and Patrick and his family, all moved to Camden Street in Roselle Park(Union County), NJ.

Patrick served in the Home Guard during WWI. He had two sons and two grandsons who served in WWII. The names of his two sons are on a monument honoring Roselle Park citizens who served in WWII.

Out of 12 Treacys and 10 Penas, the only one is still alive, Gerald, born in 1918.

Gerald is the family historian. He has been researching the Treacy family tree since the late 1960s-early 1970s. He has uncovered many interesting facts and has discovered some long lost cousins.

I only remember a few specific incidents from the Treacys’ time in Argentina. (For example, my grandfather said his parents spoke Spanish when they didn’t want their children to know what they were talking about). However, I don’t ever remember a time when I wasn’t aware of the Argentina connection.

We always knew our family had lived in Argentina for awile. But I could never find any other Irish people who had ancestors/family who had gone to Argentina.

It was while surfing the Net that I found the Irlandeses website.

Even though it had been year since I studied & used my Spanish, I could read most of the Spanish without difficulty. I shared this discovery with Uncle Gerald and even posted his birthday on the site.

I had also used the Net to look for Treacys in Argentine telephone directories.

I knew there were Treacys in Argentina. I had a friend from college, Joseph “Joe” Richey, who was a poet. He lived in Buenos Aires for awhile and used to publish an underground newspaper called “La Selva Subterranea/The Underground Forest”. This was in the 1980s and he told me he found Treacys in the Buenos Aires telephone directory. He said he would send me the page, but I don’t recall if he did. Recently, I found a Bernardo/Bernard Treacy, who is buried in a cemetery in Argentina. Since Bernard is Gerald’s middle name, I wonder if this could be a relative.

My great grandfather was born March 5, 1865, in Pallagrean, County Limerick, Ireland, to John & Kate Hourigan Treacy. His son, John W. Treacy, Sr., was born in Corelish, Co. Limerick, not far from the old Treacy homestead. My mother, his second child, was born in Linden, NJ in 1935. I was born in Elizabeth, NJ in 1957.

Many years later, one of Patrick’s grandchildren, returned to former Treacy property and took photographs (Gerald had found the address). We were surprised to see a good-sized, stone house of at leat two stories, with two chimneys. My ancestor built this home (or had it built ) in 1800.

Given the conditions of the time, and the fact that my ancestor was Roman Catholic, I have often wondered how he managed to do this. All I can think is that he had a lot of money and a lot of connections.

My grandfather always told me that his father said we were descended from a Duke de Treacy, so maybe that’s part of the answer.

What’s harder to answer is why they left Ireland in the first place.

My grandfather always said the English took our money. He also said, if it was ever straightened out, there’d be an inheritance. (Since he was the oldest son, we figured we’d be in line to get some.)

From reading Irish history. I know that, as the 19th century went on, the lower strata of Irish society gained more rights. These gains were made at the expense of the landowners and gentry.

Since the Treacys probably qualified as both, they would have suffered a loss of position and property.

At this time, Britain was still calling the shots. Maybe this is what my grandfather meant when he said they took our money.

In a way, this is the reason I was able to become involved with this documentary. After a quite some time, I decided to begin looking at the Argentine connection again. I went to the Irlandeses site & found the SILAS one. I wrote to Edmundo Murray to ask if he knew why the Treacys would’ve left Ireland. He, in turn, put me in touch with Juan Pablo Alvarez, the author & producer of this important documentary.

Linda Koenig -25/05/09