HISTORY OF THE WASSERZUG FAMILY
OF
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, USA
FIRST
PART: The Family Origin
Summary:
· Introduction
· María’s Family
· Germán’s
Family
· Dr.
Eugene Wasserzug
· Eugene
In Argentina
· Eugene’s Argentine Children
Note from the author: If somebody mentioned in
this page considers that what I wrote here is incomplete, erroneous or
inappropriate, please send an e-mail to this address. Be aware that this page is
still in a developing stage. To complete it, it is necessary the help of all in
the family. As the missing or erroneous information is received or just found,
it will be incorporated where it is appropriate. If you noticed inconsistencies
in the way people are described it may be because that is the way it was
requested to us or it could also be because some information is not available
to us. We will keep trying to collect more information and finding mistakes
that may result in changes along the way.
Germán Wasserzug and María Teresa Moyano started this family when
they got married in Argentina. They later brought the family to the United States and they settle down in Cincinnati, Ohio en 1961. In 1974, they came to Louisville, Kentucky, where they are living now.
Germán was born on December 13,
1928, in Ituzaingó, a
suburban locality in the west part of the Buenos Aires metropolitan area known as Grand Buenos Aires.
María was born on November 7, 1930, in the City of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina.
Germán and María got married
in Ituzaingó on December 12, 1953. When they came to the states María adopted the name
María Wasserzug. Among family members and friends she is always known as
“Coca”.
Recently they had their golden
(50th) wedding anniversary with a big celebration during which their
children offered them a five day Caribbean Cruse that they took in December
2003.
They have seven children –
five boys and two girls; the first three were born in Argentina and the others in Cincinnati, Ohio. They also have 14 grandchildren – Seven boys and
seven girls. You can read about the immediate family in another
page of this Web Site.
Here in the estates Germán
still uses the name German Wasserzug (Germán – with an
orthographic accent on the “a” – is Spanish for Herman), but in all the places
where he worked in the United States, he was known as “Jerry” to avoid confusion
with the German nationality.
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Maria’s parents were Gabriel
Moyano (1894-1930) and Isabel Josefina Ortiz (1910-2003).
Gabriel was born in the city of Bell Ville, Córdoba Province, and died in Bernal, in the southern part of Grand Buenos Aires. He was
the son of Juan Gabriel Moyano, born in Spain, and Ubalda Bonyuani, born in Argentina.
Isabel was born in the city of Buenos Aires, and died in
the city of Mar del Plata, about 150 miles south of the capital on the Atlantic
Ocean coast, in Buenos Aires Province,
Gabriel and Isabel had only
one child: María Teresa (n.1930) who married Germán Wasserzug (n.1928).
The information about them, their children and grandchildren, is in another part of this Web Site.
Gabriel died in an accident
before María was born. In 1935 Isabel married José Jannello (1902-1993),
from Palermo, Italy, with whom she had two children: José Luis (“Luis”) (1936-2000)
and Ana María (b.1941).
Luis married Marta Izarriaga (b.1947) and they had six children:
Gustavo (b.1967), Marcelo (b.1967), Silvia (b.1968),
Karina (b.1971), Laura (b.1973) and Cintia
(b.1975). Marta and her children live in the city of Buenos Aires.
Gustavo married Claudia Nancy Baldi (b.1967) and they had a son named Matías
(n.1993). Gustavo is a doctor graduated in the University of Buenos Aires.
Karina married Luis Alberto Falcone (b.1966) and they have a daughter
named Ornella (b.1993).
The information about the other children of Luis and Marta
are not available.
Ana María married Egidio José Pallazzo (b.1939) and
they have two daughters: Verónica Beatriz (b.1967) and Andrea
Isabel (b.1970). Ana María and her daughters live in Mar del Plata. Egidio lives in the Grand Buenos
Aires.
Verónica is a student of interior design at the Institute of Interior Design Andrea Paladino in the city of Mar del Plata. She married Dr. Juan Carlos Andreatta,
a Surgeon at the Colón Clínic of Mar del Plata, graduated at the National
University of La Plata.
Andrea married Marcelo Rampi (b.1967) and they have two
daughters: Luciana (b.1998) and Valentina (b.2001). Marcelo
is an engineer who works for the local telephone company in Mar del Plata.
The
parents of Isabel were Armando Ortiz (1888-1947) and Luisa María
Dionisia Laborde (1891-1933). Isabel had three sisters and three brothers: Blanca
Celia Ortiz (b.1914), Armando Jr. (1919-1986), Adelia Lucía (1921-1938),
Carlos Alberto (1923-1988), Alicia Edith (b.1927) and Jorge (1930-2004).
Blanca married twice. Her first husband was Juan José Labeque and the
second one was Juan Cogorno. After the death of her second husband,
Blanca dedicated herself to philanthropy and during many years she was, and
still is, a volunteer worker at various hospitals of Buenos Aires. She is also active in local
theatres as an actress. She lives at the city of Buenos Aires.
Armando Jr. married Lidia Díaz (b.1925)
and they had three children: Beatriz (1948-1949), Jorge (b.1950)
and Juan Carlos (b.1952). Beatriz died before her first birthday. Jorge
and Juan Carlos are high school teachers.
Adelia died of scarlet fiver at the age of 17.
Carlos married Elena Besone and they had three children: Carlos,
Guillermo and Jorge.
Alicia Edith married Gregorio Herrero (1916-1991) and they had
three children: Gregorio Alberto (“Alberto”) (b.1947), Alicia Beatriz
(b.1949) and Gabriela Norma (“Gabi”) (b.1955).
Alberto married Mónica Alvarez and they have a daughter named Carola (b.2001).
They live in a farm in the Andes Mountains near the small town Lago Puelo, in Chubut Province, south of San Carlos de Bariloche.
Alberto is an Apiculturist graduated at the School of Agriculture of the University of Buenos Aires.
Alicia Beatriz married Neil Colebrook and they have twins: Gabriela
Ana (b.1986) and Gregory John (b.1986). They live in Sydney, Australia.
Gabi married Hector Ernesto Gazzano (b.1946) and they have two
daughters: Noelia Carolina (b.1983) and Cinthia Daniela (b.1985).
Noelia is a psychology student and Cinthia is a medical student. They live in Ituzaingó.
Jorge married Elba Lescano (b.1932) and they had two children: Norberto
(b.1958) and Gustavo (1961-1994)
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Germán’s father, Horacio
Wasserzug, was born in 1892 in the City of Buenos Aires. He started to work in the Federal Court Building in the City of Buenos Aires when he was 14 years old. When he was 24, he was
promoted to Senior Clerk. He was active in the press as a parliamentary
reporter for the Catholic newspaper El Pueblo, of Buenos Aires. He published articles, short stories, poetry and
interviews. In 1919 he published a work entitled “Parliamentary Initiative on
Government Expenses” that was very well received by the local press and he
published several commentaries in the judicial publication “Argentine
Jurisprudence”. He completed the career of Notary passing with honors the
examinations of the whole career in two month during 1927 at the Law School of the University of Buenos Aires. He was a Judicial Secretary in a Civil Court in the Capital City of Buenos
Aires from 1928 until 1945, when he retired. He died in 1967 when he was living in Castelar, a
locality in the west part of Grand Buenos Aires.
German’s mother, María
Teresa Isabel de Nevares, was born in the city of Buenos Aires in 1898 and died in 1984, in San Isidro, a city in the north side of Grand Buenos Aires. Her
parents were Alejo de Nevares (1848-1924) and María Rodriguez Lubary.
Alejo de Nevares was a Lawyer. He graduated with a Ph.D. in
Jurisprudence at the University of Buenos Aires. His public life started when he was appointed
secretary of Dr. Felix Frías in 1873 during a mission to Chile to discuss matters related to the sovereignty of Patagonia. When he returned from Chile he was appointed secretary of General Bartolomé
Mitre during a mission to Paraguay in 1874, after the end of the war against that
country. He was cofounder and director of the Catholic newspaper “La Unión”;
active member of the political party “Civic Union”; member of the National
Board of Education during the Presidency of Dr. Luis Saenz Peña. Later he was
Counselor for the Board of Education in the Province of Buenos Aires; first president of the Circle of Catholic Workers; columnist of the
Catholic newspaper “El Pueblo”; active and devout Catholic who used his
profession and his faith to defend the interest of the Catholic Church in Argentina.
María Rodríguez Lubary was a descendant of a family that had as a member
Fray Cayetano Rodríguez (1761-1823), a well-known poet, politician and
religious personality, who is recognized as the author of the Argentine
Declaration of Independence in 1816.
Alejo and María Rodríguez Lubary had five children,
besides Maria Teresa. Their names were: Alejo, Manuela, María Mercedes (“Cocó”),
Josefina (“Fifina”) and Georgina. None
of them got ever married. No dates are available for any of them, but Manuela
died young. Georgina died between 1955 and 1957. Cocó and Fifina died in
their 90’s.
Horacio and María Teresa Isabel de Nevares met when
their families were neighbors in Morón, an old city in the western area of the
Grand Buenos Aires. They had the same birthday, July 8. He was the son of a
famous physician and she was the daughter of a famous lawyer. It was a perfect
match. They got married in 1923 and in 1931 they were separated. They had five
children – four boys and a girl: Roberto, Irene (“Meri”), Guillermo
(“Willy”), Germán and Jorge (“Jorge Cané”).
The first four were born in Ituzaingó and Jorge was born in Olivos, in the
northern area of Grand Buenos Aires. The only ones left alive today are Irene
and German.
Roberto (1925-1974) married María Esther Repetto in
the early ‘50s, who gave him no children. In 1963, after a friendly separation
from María Esther, Roberto married Teresa Rosa Dorr de Laferrere (b.1937).
Teresa has a Master in Literature and Language Arts from the National
University of Rosario, in Santa Fe Province. They had three sons in Buenos Aires: Javier, Martín and Sebastián. Roberto
died in 1974 of a cerebral aneurysm.
Javier (b.1965) has a “Naturalist and Tourist Guide” degree
from the National University of the Comahue, in San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro Province. He lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, where he works as a bilingual interpreter in a hospital.
Martín (b.1967) married Gabriela J. Sbriler,
(b.1968). Martín is a reporter for the Río Negro Newspaper. Gabriela is a
Professor in Language Arts graduated at the School of Humanities of the National University of the Comahue, in the city of Neuquén. They have a daughter named Paula (b.2003)
and they live in Cipolletti, Río Negro Province.
Sebastian (b.1972) lives in Bangkok, Thailand where he is teaching English at the University of Bangkok.
Irene (“Meri”) (b.1926) married Jorge Dadín
(1925-1982). They had two children: Héctor Jorge and Nora Beatriz.
Irene lives in Acassuso, in the northern area of Grand Buenos Aires.
Héctor (1953-1976) was abducted in 1976 by the last military
dictatorship in Argentina. He was a medical student at the University of Buenos Aires. He was never seen alive again.
Nora (b.1955) married Roberto Wolfenson (b.1952), an Engineer working for a
manufacturing company in Buenos Aires. They have two children: Laura (b.1985) and Esteban (b.1988). Nora and her children live
in Martínez and Roberto lives in Olivos, both in the northern area of Grand
Buenos Aires.
Guillermo (“Willy”) (1927-1999) married Asunción Ascó
(1936-1960) from the city of Córdoba, who died after a short illness at the age of 24.
They had two children: Mónica and Enrique. Guillermo was a
Biochemist graduated at the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. He was
the founder of the Argentine Biochemist Association; cofounder of the College of Biochemist of the Province of Buenos Aires; founder of the Argentine Confederation of Biochemists and cofounder of
the General Confederation of University Professionals of Argentina. He
published three books: a novel, “La Gran Fiesta”; a book of poems, “Vaso
Griego”, and a book of short stories, “Malas Artes”. In 1966
Guillermo married Inés Alvarez Colodrero (b.1939). Guillermo died after
a heart attack in 1999. Inés lives in the northern area of Grand Buenos Aires.
Mónica, born in Cordoba, Argentina, in 1954, married Juan José Dillon (b.1954). Mónica is an Architect
graduated at the University of Buenos Aires, and Juan José has a master in Health Services
Administration from the University of Management and Social Sciences of Buenos Aires. They have two daughters: Ana Inés
(b.1985) and Patricia Sol (b.1988). They live in the northern
area of Grand Buenos Aires.
Enrique, born in San Isidro, Buenos Aires Province in 1956, married Liliana Marino (b.1954). They have a daughter
named Géraldine, born in France in 1988. They live near Barcelona, Spain, where they run a Real State business.
Germán (“Jerry”) (b.1928). The information about his
immediate family is in another page of this Web
Site.
Jorge (1930-1996) was a radio personality in Buenos Aires, known as “Jorge Cané” between 1950 and 1975. He was
director of several radio stations there. He married several times and never
had any children. Jorge’s first wife, María Teresa Repetto (“Mary”), who
died in 1972, was the sister of Roberto’s first wife. Jorge’s last wife is the
former María Haydée Sessarego (b.1942). She is working at the Canadian
embassy in Buenos
Aires under the
name Haydée Wasserzug. She lives in the city of Buenos Aires.
Germán grew up, with his
siblings, as a Catholic in a predominantly Catholic country where being
Catholic meant being baptized in the church, being married in the church (at
least the first time) and, for some of us, going to Catholic schools. He
stopped practicing religion many years ago and now he calls himself an
agnostic. Practically everybody in his immediate family, with few exceptions,
feels or acts the same way.
German’s grandfather, Dr.
Eugene Wasserzug, was born in Warsaw, Poland, probably in 1831, but nobody knows for sure exactly
when. His father, Haim, Hayyim or Herman Wasserzug, was a teacher in a
school of rabbis, in Marianpol, Poland.
Eugene studied at the University of Königsberg, today Kaliningrad, in Russian territory. He also studied at the
Universities of Berlin, Vienna
and Kiev.
His first wife, María
Kamiska, was a Polish Catholic socialite, born in Suwalky, Poland, but we do not know when she was born or when and
where she died. They had two sons in Poland: Etienne (Stephen in English) and Saturnin.
Etienne was born on August 1, 1860 in Motule, Poland, near Suwalky and died in Paris in March 1888.
Saturnin was born on November 29,
1862 (the day of St.
Saturnine) in Marianpol and died in Beatenberg, Switzerland, in 1950.
Eugene participated in an unsuccessful Polish uprising
against Czarist Russia in 1863. He was taken prisoner by the Russians and
condemned to death. He escaped disguised as a beggar and the father of a classmate
helped him enter into Prussia and go safely to Switzerland where he registered as a Polish refugee.
In Switzerland he established a physician office in Lignières, a small town 16 miles northeast of the
city of Neuchâtel, in a house that had been
converted into a small hotel in 1978 when Guillermo, German’s brother,
who was living in Argentina, went there looking for information about his
grandfather. Much of what is written here is the result of what he was able to
gather during that trip.
German has a copy of a
document written in French where it shows that the County of Neuchâtel, part of the Swiss Confederation, declared on June 21, 1865, that “Eugene Wasserzug, Dr. in medicine,” was a
citizen of that county. This document mentions a passport issued to Dr.
Wasserzug, by the Prussian authorities on December 21, 1863, and it mentions that he was originally from Warsaw. Poland was not an independent country at that time.
A third child, Jeanne,
was born in 1867, in Les
Ponts-de-Martel, a small town
14 miles west of the city of Neuchâtel. She died in Bad-Freiwaldv, Odov, Germany, in 1936.
In September 1869 Eugene
obtained a copy of his certificate of naturalization from the Neuchâtel
District Administrator. Shortly after he went to France with Etienne, leaving behind in Lignières his wife and his two younger children and
he never saw them again in his life. Until this day, there is no known reason
he could have had to abandon his family that way.
In 1870, during the
Franco-Prussian war, he was appointed Inspector General of Ambulances for the
French Army. However, it is known that after France lost that war, Eugene was disgusted with the attitude assumed by the
French government.
In 1872 Eugene married Marie Salés, a 17-year-old girl (he
was 41 then) born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1855. They had a daughter named Catherine
who died before Marie went to Argentina in 1875. Eugene had gone there a year
earlier. More about this below.
Before leaving France, Eugene
left Etienne in a school in a southern French town, giving custody of him to a
woman whom he had cured from a life threatening disease.
Etienne, without a steady
financial help from his father, was able to obtain an education in France; he studied and graduated at “L'Ecole Normale
Supérieure”, a postgraduate school for higher education teachers, and
appears in a biography of Louis Pasteur as a valued assistant and researcher
working for the famous French scientist. See The Life of Pasteur by René
Vallery-Radot[1].
Etienne died of scarlet fever
in 1888 while still working for Pasteur.
There is a brief biography in
French of Etienne Wasserzug in the web site of the Pasteur Institute: http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/archives/was0.html.
The obvious lack of accuracy in this biography shows the lack of communication
between the members of the family at the time.
The local religious community
in Lignières helped the family left there by Eugene. They were able to live in a very small house and
Saturnin started to work at an early age. However, later in his life he
obtained a Ph.D. in Theology. He was a Christian missionary in Tunisia and
during the Turkish domination, in Palestine. His first wife, Marie Elisabeth
Roberts, was born in India in 1865 and died in Germany in 1918. His second
wife, Margaret Gertrude Traeder, born in Germany in 1894, later known as
Gertrud Wasserzug, became a famous theologian and writer who died in
1993. Saturnin and Gertrud founded an important Bible School in Beatemberg,
Switzerland. Saturnin’s younger sister, Jeanne, was also a missionary and
evangelist working with them.
In 1979 Germán, the writer of
this web page went to Cleveland, Ohio, to meet Gertrud. They had a long talk. Some of what
is written here came from her. According to Gertrud, the word “Wasserzug” means
Moses, because the Bible says that the name Moses means “taken out of the
water” (Exodus 2:10) and Wasserzug
can be interpreted to have that meaning in the German language. A simple search
on the Internet points to many articles about Gertrud and Saturnin, most of
them in German.
Gertrud also told Germán that
the name of Eugene’s father was Haim. However, Horacio always told his
children that his name was Hermann and that Germán was named after him (maybe
Haim is Hermann in the German language). Horacio always tried to hide from his
children the Jewish origin of his father to protect them from the anti-Semitism
prevalent in Argentina at the time. Horacio and María Teresa were separated in
1931 and Germán lived with his father until 1948. It was María Teresa the one
who told her children that their grandfather was a Jew and since she was a
devout Catholic she was not very proud of it.
The first time Germán talked
to Gertrud she was very surprised to learn what had happened to Eugene after he left the family in Lignières. In addition, she insisted that Eugene was never divorced from his first wife, Maria
Kamiska.
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The Argentine government
recruited Eugene Wasserzug to go to Argentina and teach medicine at the
University of Buenos Aires. Domingo F. Sarmiento, president of Argentina
between 1886 and 1873, interested on improving the educational institutions in
his country brought educators and scientist from United States and Europe to
work in Argentina. Eugene was one of them.
In 1874 Eugene went to Argentina, followed a year later by his young wife Marie Salés.
They had nine children together. Three of them: Catherine (1873-1874), Eugenia
(1880-1892) and Horacio (1886-1992) died in childhood. The latter, Horacio,
died before Germán’s father were born and so he was given the same name. With
the exception of Catherine, mentioned earlier, all were born in Argentina.
Eugene never taught at the University of Buenos Aires or in any other, supposedly because the conditions and resources there
were inadequate. But within a few years he had gained a reputation as a
physician, often called by “the famous and the powerful” for consultation. They
said that he spoke many languages and that he had learned Spanish during the
trip from France to Buenos Aires. His altruistic ways and his vast knowledge of
medicine and other subjects became a legend in Buenos Aires at the turn of the 20th
century. When Germán was a young boy there were many anecdotes about Eugene repeated by Horacio and his siblings. Some of the
medicines created by him were sold by a famous pharmacy en downtown Buenos
Aires. “Liquid Soap” containing iodine, was use to treat small injuries. And
there was a “Tonic Dr. Wasserzug” used by some members of the family and many
others.
Eugene was a founding member
of the Argentine Medical Association founded in 1891.
He published two volumes of a
work in Spanish entitled “La Biología Aplicada a la Sociología” (Biology
Applied to Sociology). Germán has copies of both volumes. A third volume
was never published and the manuscript, which was in Horacio’s possession at
one time, has been lost with a lot of other documents. In the two published
pieces, he developed a theory that can be summarized by the phrase “I am,
therefore I think,” meaning that every living being thinks, as opposed
to the famous “I think, therefore I am,” of the French philosopher René
Descartes (1596-1650).
In the National Library of
Medicine at The National Institute of Health, in Washington, D.C., there is a
short book written in French by Eugene Wasserzug, titled: “Études Sur
Quelques Formes Compliquées de la Fièvre Intermittente” (Studies On Some
Forms Complicated with Intermittent Fever) (France, 1873). I
obtained a copy in microfilm and I have it in my possession. That book was
published in France after he left Switzerland and before he went to Argentina.
Eugenio Wasserzug died in 1911
in the city of Morón, Argentina, mentioned above.
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The other children of Eugene,
all born in Argentina, were: Aurelia, Rosa, Jaime, Horacio,
Eugenio and Estefanía. (The years in italics in this
section are estimated.)
Aurelia (1876-1956) was the assistant of Dr. Eugene
Wasserzug at his medical office. She never married.
Rosa (1884-1950) married Bernardo
de Laferrère, brother of Gregorio de Laferrere (1867-1913), a famous
Argentine writer and politician. They had two boys and five girls: Rosa
María (“Rosita”), Manuela Mercedes (“Negra”), Bernardo (“Perico”),
María Eugenia (“Chiquita”), Zoraida (“Pichona”) Emma (“Chocha”)
and Gregorio Horacio (“Coco”).
Rosa Maria (1906-1978) never got married.
Manuela Mercedes (1907-2003) married Luis Dorr
Riglos (1907-1983) who worked many years for the Argentine government as a
public official on labor matters. They had two children: Eduardo Bernardo
y Teresa Rosa.
Eduardo (b.1940) studied music in Rosario, Santa Fe Province.
He learned to play the clarinet. He married Marta Varela. They live in Rosario.
Teresa (b.1937) married Roberto Wasserzug, German’s
older brother. Teresa uses the name Teresa Rosa Dorr de Laferrère. She
has a Master in Literature and Language Arts from the National University of
Rosario, Santa Fe Province. They had three sons: Javier, Martín and
Sebastián. Roberto died in 1974 of a cerebral aneurysm. Teresa lives en the
capital city.
Javier (b.1965) has a “Naturalist and Tourist Guide” degree
from the National University of the Comahue, in San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro Province. He lives in Seattle, Washington, USA, where he works as a bilingual
interpreter in a hospital.
Martín (b.1967) married Gabriela J. Sbriler,
(b.1968). Martín is a reporter for the Río Negro Newspaper. Gabriela is a
Professor in Language Arts graduated at the School of Humanities of the National University of the Comahue, in the city of Neuquén. They have a daughter named Paula (b.2003)
and they live in Cipolletti, Río Negro Province.
Sebastián (b.1972) lives in Bangkok, Thailand where he is teaching English at the University of Bangkok.
María
Eugenia married Hector Arruabarrena.
Zoraida married Mr. Mendizabal.
Emma married Elio Jammier.
Jaime (1888-1944) was for many years a public official for
the Argentine government in the Ministry of Agriculture. He was also a
philatelist. He married Herminia Donegani (1900-1937). They had a
daughter also named Herminia, born in 1927, a devout Catholic who
dedicated her life to education. Her two greatest vocations are Catechesis (the
teaching of catechism) and the Montessori Method of teaching. She never
married.
Horacio, was Germán’s father. See Germán’s
Family.
Eugenio Jr. (1895-1937) was an architect in Buenos Aires. He died in an automobile accident in 1937. Among
other things, he designed the magnificent building of the Young Men’s Christian
Association in downtown Buenos Aires. He never married.
Estefanía (1898-1942) married Rene Villamarín and had
no children.
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This completes the first part
of the history of the family. Please return to this page to read the next
chapters we will be adding as they are completed.
Document completed on October 22,
2004
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[1] The Life of Pasteur by
Rene Vallery-Radot. Translated into English by Mrs. R.L. Devonshire, 1923,
Doubleday, Page & Company, Garden City, N.Y., pg. 424. There are several
versions in Spanish. I heard, however, that his name has been dropped in later
editions of the same book.
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Last Updated 1/1/2007