Hi Albert Have you had a chance to get hold of a copy of "In the Land Where Milk and Honey Flows - The German Emigration to NSW 1838 -1858"? There is a whole chapter of letters written by those who emmigrated to Australia written to their familys in Germany. In these letters there is an enormous amount of contempt held for their mother county. They talk of bloodshed of innocent people, the greed of the rich people, the amount of taxes and tithes demanded for every little aspect of life by the government. One gentleman goes on to say how back in Germany he would have been considered a pauper with his horde of little beggars, in Australia he was simply a father with his family. There is nothing but praise for their new found home. They are all encouraging their family members to come to Australia. This may explain why they held no loyalty or wanted to remember their homeland. This was now their new home and they wanted to become a part of it and forget their life in Germany. The Government Bounty System required that all migrants were married, To comply with this requirement, Kirchner apparently told migrants that they could get married on board ship. The laws in Germany at that time made it expensive to obtain a Civil Marriage certificate, the reason was to reduce the births amongst the poorer classes. However the poor then lived together after a "Betrothal" recognised by families and when they had sufficient money, they married by State Law. The church baptised the children and the father declared his paternity and they were made legitimate when the couple married. The law was such that they couldnt be married by the church until they had their Civil Wedding. This information found on the shipping list of the "Harmony", National Library Reel 2459 fiche 851 Hope this helps Michele Darwin ----- Original Message ----- From: Albert Grulke To: AUS-GERMAN-L@rootsweb.com Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 7:57 AM Subject: [AUS-GERMAN] Hunter Valley Germans some questions I have spent half the night bashing the brain box trying to work this out. I am about half way through collating my gatherings on German migration to the Hunter valley in the 19th century and in particular the period 1840-1860. This was no minor movement of people. One document that I have says that in total 800 families migrated to the Hunter from Germany in that period. If that figure is accurate it would place the Hunter reception of German on a par with the Barossa valley. It may even exceed it. Of course we need to accept that a percentage of these migrants never left Sydney and some went further north to the Darling Downs and other parts. However my document says that that was only a small percentage of the 800 families. The rest settled between Maitland and Newcastle and Cessnock. About 53% were Roman Catholic. The rest were protestant and we can assume with confidence that more than 40% of the 47% protestant were Lutheran. So my first quandary: How come they never had a Lutheran pastor to serve their spiritual needs? In Queensland the government, the agents and the people themselves sought and received Lutheran pastors from Germany to serve their spiritual needs. Likewise for the Baptists and the Calvinists. How come that never happened in the Hunter? The thing that really tosses me is the way they changed their names. It seems that in more than one family the name was anglicised not by the next generation but by the migrant himself. Why, why, why? There was no war. This was more then 70 years before the First World War so why change his name? I can understand some slight changes for reason of spelling but to change the name entirely is beyond me. If there were only a few German families then I could understand it but here we have possibly 800 families. Then we find no record of German customs among these people or of their being passed on. In Queensland, Victoria and South Australia the customs were passed on even if they were modified to suit the new environment but in the Hunter it seems not one custom was passed on. It seems that not one custom was maintained once the ship left Hamburg. Why? Did the authorities prevent their maintaining their customs? Did the employers persecute them? Did the neighbours persecute them? Half the neighbours were German anyhow. Were they ashamed of their origin? Why did they just drop their customs? Where in the Hunter can you buy a good old German meat wurst made in traditional style? When they had completed their contract terms and ventured out to buy property they went into general farming. Why did they not continue with the vine growing and wine making? I find not one record of a German vine dresser becoming a wine producer under his own label. It seems that within two generation their German heritage had been forgotten. Emails and documents from descendants of these people who say they had no idea of their German ancestry until they began a genealogy project. Was there some reason of shame? What were they trying to avoid? Is that too harsh a question? I find it intriguing that the Hunter was the first major wine producer in this land yet by the turn of the century it was unknown as a wine area. In fact as I have it at this time the Hunter did not come to prominence as a wine producer until the 1970s yet it preceded the Barossa by about 20 years. Why? These questions have really got to me and I would love to find some answers. Albert Grulke ==== AUS-GERMAN Mailing List ==== For your Aus-German resources go to http://www.ainsleehooper.com/germlinks.htm ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx