Hello Albert An excellent history of the founding of Bethania can be found on the Bethania Settlers website at http://home.wanadoo.nl/wouter.busnach/bethan.htm . This article was published in the 1940s as reminiscences of Carl Holzheimer either (1881-1950) or his father (1852-1926). It was found by Les Moreland and republished in the 125th anniversary publication 'Bethania, the early years'. It states that whilst this group of settlers were 'Old Lutherans', unhappy about the union of the Prodestant churches (Lutheran & Calvinist) into a state church, the overwhelming reason for the emigration was economic. This was brought about by industrialisation of the farming industry and overpopulation. It was becoming more difficult for the younger farming families to support themselves on smaller & smaller plots of land. Their options were to move to the cities or to look for new lands. At the time, both America and Australia were actively recruiting German/Prussian farmer families to populate their vast expanses. There were ancilliary factors including religious tensions, compulsory military service & the Prussian wars etc. but Les Moreland is convinced that the primary reasons were economic as Holzheimer stated it. Secondly, I note your reference to a Schneider ancestor. I don't appear to have your line in the Bethania tree which would seem to be somewhat of an omission. I would be very happy to correct this situation with your concurrence. Kind regards Russell Greig Cleveland, Qld Researching Holzheimer/Lindow, Schneider/Tappendorf & Tesch/Beutel in Prussia and Greig/Mackie Aberdeen Scotland Bethania Settlers List http://home.wanadoo.nl/wouter.busnach/index.html > -----Original Message----- > From: Albert Grulke [mailto:grulke@bigpond.com] > Sent: Sunday, 2 December 2001 2:00 pm > To: AUS-QLD-SE-Germans-L@rootsweb.com > Subject: Name changing > > > One needs to be careful when discussing this question of name changes. > There are two unrelated factors here. > During World war One there was hostility toward the German > especially in > Queensland and South Australia. This seems crazy since both > states owe their > development to the Germanic migrants. To make it worse the English > population could not distinguish between German and Polish or > other European > nationalities. Hence if you had a name that was not English > you were German > but might be French or Italian. It mattered not. > A great number of people changed their names entirely or > anglicised it. I > learned recently that my grandfather changed his name and > went to Bundaberg > to work in the sugar mills. Somebody found out about his name > change and his > German background. He was dismissed for being a German even > though he could > not speak a word of German. He said 'Stuff them" and resumed > his correct > name. His brother changed his name to Robinson and went to > Narrabri to work. > His family all think they are Robinson. > The second issue is changing names for other reasons. Today > they do it by > deed poll or are supposed to. I understand that they can be > traced today > because of records. > My grandfather was born Schneider because that was his father. However > father disappeared as soon as he found out that he was > fertile and could > father a son. The result was that his Mother changed her name back to > Grulke, her first husband, and naturally changed sons name as well. I > understand that this practice was common. Unlike now where > the child gets > the father's surname irrespective of the mother's surname. If > there was a > disappearing father they simply changed the names to the one > the mother > choose. > It was common that if a girl got pregnant when she shouldn't > that one of the > parents (the girls or the boys) would raise the child as > their own. Hence a > girl might have a child that might be raised by the boy's > parents as their > child. The birth certificate would register one name and the > child lived and > died under another name. > That is what my research into this is telling me. It suggests > that there > were no deed poll actions and it just happened because that > was how they > solved the problem whatever it was. > Albert Grulke in wet miserable Melbourne > > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry.com for a FREE 14-Day Trial and enjoy access to the #1 > Source for Family History Online. Go to: > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=702&sourceid=1237 >