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October 2008
October seminars
24: Introduction to FH research (over 7 weeks with sessions of 1.5 hrs each), WEA Centre 7:00pm
See the seminar program for more details.
Office closed
Adelaide Proformat will be closed from Sep 27 to Oct 23.
Ancestry secures rights to London records
Following a lengthy tendering process, Ancestry.co.uk has secured the exclusive online rights to digitise and host key records from London Metropolitan Archives and the London Guildhall Library Manuscripts. Unfortunately this organisation is not well known in the past for quality transcriptions, favouring haste to make records available and hence secure revenue quickly!
Understanding SA shipping records 2
In the previous issue we focused on UK emigrants into nineteenth century South Australia receiving government assistance with their passage. Another group of settlers gained assistance from a range of sources and these are the subject of this article.
Germanic people
Phase 1: 1838–1841: Religious persecution [5%]
In November 1838, Pastor Kavel with the help of George Fife Angas, brought to South Australia a large group of Lutheran migrants on two vessels leaving Prussia because of religious persecution.
George Fife Angas also was greatly interested in the emigration of German Lutheran settlers. When Pastor August Kavel approached him for help for his people to escape religious persecution, Angas unsuccessfully tried to have their passage paid from the Emigration Fund. In the end he paid for their trip to South Australia. This act of philanthropy provided handsome profits to Angas. They were settled on land belonging to Angas and formed the village of Klemzig named for their village back in Silesia.
In
this issue:
News
October seminars
Office closed
Ancestry secures rights to London records
Feature article
Understanding SA shipping records 2
News
October seminars
Office closed
Ancestry secures rights to London records
Feature article
Understanding SA shipping records 2
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In December 1838 Captain Dirk Meinhertz Hahn of the Zebra arrived with the second wave of Lutheran migrants from Prussia who settled on land belonging to Frederick Dutton which they named Hahndorf. When Klemzig became too small after the arrival of more Lutherans, some of the Kavel group also settled in Hahndorf.
With the death of the King of Prussia, Frederick William III, in June 1840, religious reasons to flee Prussia were no longer justified. In fact that had been the case for quite some time before Kavel and his parishioners departed but the potential of a return to this era remained.
The next group on the Catharina mainly settled at Glen Osmond while the final group brought with them the second pastor for the community, Gotthard Daniel Fritzsche and they established Lobethal and Bethanien now Bethany in the Barossa.
The vessels bringing out these refugees included:
Vessel |
Departure
port |
Arrive
Pt Adelaide |
Bengalee |
Hamburg |
16
Nov 1838 |
Prince
George |
Hamburg |
18
Nov 1838 |
Zebra |
Altona |
28
Dec 1838 |
Catharina |
Hamburg |
20
Jan 1839 |
Skjold |
Altona |
29
Oct 1841 |
Phase 2: 1848: Catholic Germans
One group of Catholic Prussians led by the Jesuit Father Aloysius Kranewitter settled and named Sevenhill in the Clare Valley. They also claimed they were escaping religious persecution. Francis Weikert donated land to establish the current Saint Aloysius Church and the Sevenhill Winery.
Vessel |
Departure
port |
Arrive
Pt Adelaide |
Alfred |
Hamburg |
8
Dec 1848 |
Phase 3: 1849: Political refugeesDue to political unrest in Berlin particularly on 19 March 1848 a small number of people left the city and eventually settled in South Australia. The unrest occurred during the reign of the son (Frederick William IV) of the king who caused the earlier wave of religious refugees. On 19 March crowds demonstrating for improved rights including parliamentary elections, a constitution, and freedom of the press were fired upon by soldiers that led to an escalation and the deaths of several hundred civilians. It also brought about the creation of a revolutionary flag based on the French design which was ultimately adopted and is now the current flag of the German nation.
Pictured: The uprising and barricading of Berlin 19 March 1848 known as the Märzrevolution.
Vessel |
Departure
port |
Arrive
Pt Adelaide |
| Princess
Louise |
Hamburg |
7
Aug 1849 |
Phase 4: 1848 onwards: Germans seeking economic betterment [95%]
During the early 1850s more than two thousand German miners migrated from the Harz Mountains with funds from interest free loans supplied by the Government of Hanover. Mining had become costly, outdated and this was compounded with a significant downturn in the very low prices for ore. Many of these men found work in South Australia’s copper mines and smelters. Their vessels included:
Vessel |
Departure
Hamburg |
Arrive
Pt Adelaide |
George
Washington |
25
Oct 1848 |
2
Mar 1849 |
Auguste
and Meline |
17
Dec 1848 |
3
Apr 1849 |
Ceres |
10
Dec 1849 |
22
Apr 1850 |
Leontine |
7
May 1850 |
13
Aug 1850 |
Herder |
4
Jun 1851 |
21
Sep 1851 |
| Dockenhuden | 20
Nov 1851 |
26
Feb 1852 |
| Alfred | 7
Jun 1852 |
10
Oct 1852 |
| Dockenhuden | 26
Nov 1852 |
10
May 1853 |
| Steinvorder | 31
May 1853 |
6
Nov 1853 |
| Hermann | 14
Jul 1853 |
19
Nov 1853 |
| Cesar Godeffroy | 28
Aug 1853 |
1
Jan 1854 |
| Iserbrook | 18
Nov 1853 |
14
Mar 1854 |
| Wandrahm | 13
Apr 1854 |
8
Aug 1854 |
| Johan Cesar | 9
Oct 1854 |
1
Jan 1855 |
Subsequently some of these families were attracted by the VIC goldfields and others moved to the Wimmera in the 1870s. Others ended up in the eastern goldfields in WA. See also Renate Vollmer, Migrants from the Harz Mountains in the Kingdom of Hanover 1849-55 at the SLSA and SAGHS.
Not just miners and their families from the Harz Mountains came to SA to improve their circumstances or were actively sought out for their skills by the SA authorities. Some of the passengers were also encouraged to come by earlier German emigrants with some 33 on the 1845 voyage of the Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel responding to their Klemzig relatives. The earliest voyages includes the following:
Vessel |
Departure |
Arrive
Pt Adelaide |
| Solway | Hamburg:
9 Jun 1837 |
16
Oct 1837 |
| Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel | Bremen: 21 Apr 1845 | 18
Sep 1845 |
| Pauline | Bremen: 17 Jun 1846 | 27
Sep 1846 |
| Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel | Bremen: 27 Jun 1846 | 29
Oct 1846 |
| Heloise | Bremerhaven: 12 Oct 1846 | 17
Mar 1847 |
| Gellert | Bremen: 28 Aug 1847 | 21
Dec 1847 |
| Hermann
von Beckerath |
Bremen:
18 July 1847 |
15
Dec 1847 |
| Pauline | Bremen: 21 Nov 1847 | 31
Mar 1848 |
| Pauline | Bremen: 24 Aug 1849 | 9
Dec 1849 |
| San Francisco | Hamburg:
15 Jun 1850 |
14
Oct 1850 |
| Helene | Hamburg: 19 Aug 1851 | 24
Dec 1851 |
The records of Germanic arrivals are to be found in a number of locations. State Records of SA and the SA State Library hold a copy from the Staatsarchiv Hamburg of the official Port of Hamburg list which includes Adelaide disembarkation. These records cover 1851–1886. For earlier records the researcher has to rely on newspaper reports and local and family histories.
Most of the above voyages are reported together with lists of passengers derived from a range of sources on the web sites called Immigrants to Australia - Ship Index and Germany to Australia.
Eric and Rosemary Kopittke series of booklets entitled; Emigrants from Hamburg to Australia are compilations of the newspaper reports and sundry records including the material from the Staatsarchiv Hamburg and these are readily available in many libraries or can be purchased from Gould Genealogy in book, searchable CD or fiche format.
The latter phases of arrivals where migration is linked to land means that records developed by the Crown Lands & Immigration Office should also be sought out. These are at State Records:
• GRG 7/39: Index to free colonial nominees—UK and Europe 1876–1879
• GRG 7/44: Index to free colonial nominees—UK and Europe 1876–1879
• GRG 35/408:Land Order warrants issued at Hamburg 1883–4 (issued to those holding a Land Order on arrival)
The Lutheran Archives may hold material indirectly related to emigration. The bulk of their material relates to church records but they also have an extensive collection of Germanic family histories.
In the third and final instalment on this subject we will look at the other ethnic groups of settlers that gained assistance from non government sources.
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