Immigrant Ancestors Part 3: Dennis Treacy & Mary Hayes

Dennis Treacy and Mary Hayes both immigrated from Co. Tipperary Ireland. (Google maps)

The family history posts of our immigrant ancestors continue with our third installment that recounts the lives of Dennis C. Treacy and his wife Mary Hayes. 

Dennis Treacy was born in September 1834 (or 1838) in Templemore, County Tipperary, Ireland as the fifth child, and first son, of John Treacy and Bridget (Slattery) Treacy. Dennis immigrated to the US when he was in his 20s.  He sailed from Queenstown, Ireland to New York aboard the ship Edinburgh (Figure 1). He was one of 406 steerage passengers; there were also 36 cabin passengers.  He arrived on 22 May 1861.  

Figure 1. The Edinburgh:  Maiden voyage 28 Dec 1855, part of the Glasgow and New York Steamship Co. line, acquired by Inman Line in 1859, eventually broken up for scrap in the early 1890's.

According to records of my grandmother, Anne (Treacy) Fenlon, Dennis' older sister Mary immigrated to Canada (Figure 2). His older sister Bridget and younger sister Julia (II) immigrated to the Syracuse area and married. His older sister Julia (I) died at birth and his older sister Hannah married twice and stayed in Ireland. His only brother, Patrick, immigrated to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia where he married Margaret Agnes Connolly. They had five children. I found information on their graves on BillionGraves website (grave for Patrick Treacy). 

Figure 2. Treacy and Hayes family tree records of Anne (Treacy) Fenlon, my grandmother. 

Mary Hayes was in July 1842 near Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland as the sixth child, and second girl, of Dennis Hayes and Margaret (Sherlock) Hayes. I have not found a record for Mary's immigration to the US, but various census documents indicate that she came to the US in 1861 or 1862. 

Most of Mary's siblings also immigrated from Ireland to the Syracuse area (Figure 2). It does not appear that they made the voyage together because I cannot find an immigration record that supports this. Census data for her brothers James and Mathew have 1862 as the immigration year, but her brother John has 1859. It is unclear if her oldest brother Patrick immigrated.  Her brother Dennis died in Ireland at the age of 21. More on Mary's siblings who immigrated to Syracuse is below. 

Dennis Treacy and Mary Hayes were born ~30 Km (18.6 miles) apart in County Tipperary, but I do not think they knew each other before they came to the US.  This distance is trivial today, but was more significant before the invention of the automobile. I suspect that Dennis and Mary met at their local Catholic parish in Syracuse -- St. John the Evangelist which was located at 215 North State Street.  The parish is now closed; the last mass was in 2010. Regardless of when they met, they were married at St. John the Evangelist on 24 Feb 1867 by Rev. John McMenomy, the first pastor of the parish (Figure 3).

Figure 3. St. John the Evangelist Church in Syracuse; Rev. John McMenony (1817-1892), the first pastor. 

By 1880 Dennis and Mary were living at 14 Wayne Street (later renumbered to 114) and had two sons, John Aloysius (8 Oct 1874) and Dennis Jr. (31 Oct 1876), see Figure 4.  Unfortunately, Dennis Jr. died on 15 Dec 1887 when he was only 11 years old. More information on John  A. Treacy will be forthcoming in the final installment of the immigrant ancestor series which focuses on his wife, Janet MacDonell. 

Figure 4. John Aloysius Treacy (1874-1954) and Dennis Treacy, Jr. (1876-1887). 

Dennis and Mary's house on Wayne Street is near what is currently known as the Little Italy neighborhood, which is near St. Joseph's Hospital and the intersection of Interstate 81 and Rt. 690.  When researching Mary's siblings it was exciting to find that her brothers James, John, and Mathew were within easy walking distance of her home.  Mathew's family at 609 East Division Street was the furthest away and that was only 0.8 miles.  St. John the Evangelist was also close, only 0.5 miles from Dennis and Mary's house (Figure 5). I believe I also found Mary's older sister Bridget (Hayes) Maley living at 107 Bear Street in 1880. This location is about 0.7 miles north of Mathew's house, however I think the house was removed when Interstate 81 was built. According to my grandmother's notes (Figure 2), Bridget "made a home for younger brothers and sisters when they came to Syracuse from Ireland." This statement lends support to the hypothesis that the Hayes siblings each immigrated separately. 

Figure 5. Locations and photos of the homes lived in by the Hayes siblings in the Little Italy section of Syracuse c. 1880-1920 (Google maps). 

In most census records Dennis' occupation is listed as laborer, but in a few he is listed as teamster or teamster (lumber), which means he was a truck driver hauling lumber.   When his son John got a job as disbursing clerk and commissioner of deeds for the Erie Canal it appears he put in a good word for his father as Dennis worked as a bridge tender for section 6 of the canal in both 1915 and 1917 seasons according to newspaper reports (apparently the canal lock and bridge tenders for each season were required to be publicly announced by the division superintendent. It does not appear that Dennis ever retired because he died later in 1917. His death certificate lists bridge tender as his occupation. Mary's occupation appeared as "keeping house" on each census. 

Mary (Hayes) Treacy died on 12 May 1913 at the age of 70 years old. Her obituary from the Syracuse Journal is shown in Figure 6. Mary, Dennis Sr., and Dennis Jr. are buried together in St. Agnes Cemetery, at 2315 South Avenue in Syracuse (Figure 7)

Figure 6. Obit for Mary (Hayes) Treacy from the Monday 12 May 1913 Syracuse Journal.

Figure 7. Gravestones for Dennis Treacy Sr. and Mary (Hayes) Treacy in St. Agnes Cemetery. (Find-A-Grave)

According to his death certificate, Dennis C. Treacy died on 31 Oct 1917 of lobar pneumonia.  He was 83 years old. His obituary from the Syracuse Journal is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Obit for Dennis Treacy from the 3 Nov 1917 Syracuse Journal.

As mentioned above, the last post in the immigrant ancestor series will detail the life of Janet (MacDonell) Treacy. Future blog posts include one on our ancestor Harriet (Kennedy) MacMillan of Lochiel, Ontario and another on family names. 

Happy New Year and all the best for 2020.