The WEDEMEYERs of Eastern Australia, Chapter 2
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GHL emigrates from Germany.
- Inside this chapter: |
- Emigration |
- Reasons for emigration |
- Problems remaining concerning GHL’s emigration |
Emigration
The Ship ‘Peru’ in the Kobe Harbour. Courtesy of theJohn Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.
In GHL’s "Memorial or Application for Naturalization" dated 26 August 1858 he tells us that: he is a native of Hanover, Germany, he is 33 years old, a bootmaker, that he arrived in the Colony of NSW by the ship ‘Peru’, he arrived in Gayndah in July 1857 and that he has purchased Crown Land in this District (Gayndah). What a mine of information!
Source: NSW State Archives Records. Naturalization, 1834-1903. WEDEMEYER, Louis. Date Of Certificate: 28 Aug 1858. Register No: 2. Page: 359. Item: [4/1201]. Reel: 129.
The ‘Peru’ is pictured here, from a copy of a photo held by the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. The Library's kind permission is acknowledged.
Reasons for emigration
Why was there a surge in emigration from Germany to Australia at this time? Leske** advances the following reasons. Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia attempted to compel change of religion from Lutheranism to Reformed Protestant, using persecution and imprisonment. Even though Friedrich Wilhelm III died in 1840, the economic effects of his policies persisted for the Lutherans, since many had sold their lands in an effort to get out of the country, the Prussians stopped them from leaving. The Prussians' military expansionism caused uncertainty in the adjacent states. Added to this was the economic downturn caused by the disastrous German grain and potato harvests of 1844 and 1846. Enthusiastic letters from German emigrants to Australia back to the "Fatherland" added to the pressure placed on people still in Germany... "why don't you come to a land of opportunity and religious freedom".
Source: ** LESKE, Everard. For Faith and Freedom; The Story of Lutherans and Lutheranism in Australia. Publ 1996 by Open Book Publishers 205 Halifax St., Adelaide SA 5000. 287 pp, ISBN 0 85910 812 0.
Local fear of the Prussians was justified on 16 June 1866. Bismarck's army invaded the Hanoverian Kingdom, which was subsequently annexed. The Guelphs (longest reigning dynasty in Germany) were replaced by the Prussian Hohenzollerns.
Local events might have given GHL reasons to leave. Wilfried Hartje details the effect of asiatic cholera in 1850 on nearby Moringen. The epidemic affected nearly all of Moringen’s population and there were many deaths. Two WEDEMEYERs (unrelated?) were recorded in the deaths: (1) Otto Friedrich August WEDEMEYER, butcher’s apprentice, b. 26 Sep 1821, d. 18 Nov 1850. (2) Georg Christian WEDEMEYER, master butcher, b. 25 Dec 1793, d. 11 Nov 1850. This epidemic impacted on the Kingdom of Hannover, though I don't have data on its effect on Goslar. Can anyone help with information?
Problems remaining concerning GHL’s emigration
- Why did GHL say that he emigrated from Hanover? The shipping dates of the ‘Peru’ and the history of Germany give the answer. The ‘Peru’ left 5 Dec 1854 from Hamburg, Germany, and arrived on 23 May 1855 in Sydney NSW Australia. The political history of Goslar describes it as an imperial free city until annexed by Prussia in 1802. It passed to Westphalia in 1807, to Prussia in 1814, to Hanover in 1815, and, with the Hanoverian kingdom, back to Prussia in 1866. Thus at the time of GHL’s emigration in 1854 he was a citizen of the Hanoverian kingdom. Hence Hanover was mentioned and not his birthplace of Goslar.
- Where is GHL’s record as a bounty immigrant on the ship? Out of all the possibilities, I feel that GHL paid his own way on the ‘Peru’ and thus did not appear on the bounty list. GHL's record is that of an organised educated man who did not lack money in his business dealings and who could satisfy probity and bureaucratic requirements throughout his business career. In other words he could have afforded his passage and was unlikely to use an assumed name on the ‘Peru’ which might have jeopardised his subsequent naturalisation application.
- Did GHL come to Australia before the ‘Peru’ voyage? He might have made his money in Australia between 1855 and 1858? Perhaps he came to Australia earlier in the gold rush when our population doubled between 1851 and 1861? In 1855 much alluvial gold was found in the gold fields of Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria. Maggie GATES (nee WEDEMEYER) said that her father was a goldminer... this was quoted by her husband when he was the informant for her death certificate. I have not found any other references to GHL as a goldminer. Possible support for this is given by gold weighing scales and gold ore assaying equipment which were in my grandparents home.... perhaps GHL gave them to his daughter Minnie (my grandmother)?
The Story Continues
- Chapter 3: GHL's properties in Gayndah.