From the Rhine to New South Wales – The Gersbach Story

This post marks the 110th anniversary of the death of our matriarch,   Margaret Gersbach , who, with her husband   Anton , helped lay the foundations for our family’s Australian story. City and Harbour of Sydney New South Wales from the height above Vaucluse, ca. 1855 [painted by G. E. Peacock] The Journey from the Rhine to New South Wales On   1 May 1855 , Anton and Margaretha (Margaret) Gersbach departed Hamburg aboard the   Wilhelmsburg . Travelling with them were Anton’s second cousins once removed, Joseph Gersbach and his wife, Margaret, along with her mother, Anna Maria Jacoby. Hamburg Passenger Lists, 1850-1934 Staatsarchiv Hamburg; Hamburg, Deutschland; Hamburger Passagierlisten; Microfilm No.: K_1704 The Hamburg passenger list records Anton as 31, Margaret as 24, and their home as   Eltville, Nassau . Anton’s occupation was given as   vine dresser . Anton’s older brother,   John , had arrived in Sydney earlier that year on the   Catteaux ...

Ship in the style of Wilhelmsburg  On 1 May 1855, Joseph and Margaret Gersbach departed from Hamburg on board the Wilhelmsburg. Also on board the ship were Margaret's mother, Anna Maria Jacoby (nee Siebel), and Joseph's second cousin 1x removed, Anton Gersbach, and his wife, Margaretha.   The Hamburg passengers' list records Joseph as 33, Margaret as 21 and Anna Maria as 48 and their place of residence as Winkel, Nassau.  Joseph's occupation is shepherd.  You can read more about the German migration to New South Wales in the 1850s  HERE.   Joseph's older brother, Valentine, had arrived in Sydney on board the Peru on 29 November 1853.   The ship called at Bremer and Hobart before arriving in Sydney on 22 September1855.  Anton's brother, John, travelled from St Mary's to meet the ship and accompany his brother and sister-in-law to Kempsey.  Joseph and Margaret made their way towards Orange. Wilhelmsburg Passenger List f...

Our earliest photo of "Pargie" aged 24 Sydney, 1885 I grew up hearing my father’s stories about Anton and Margaretha Gersbach, my second great-grandparents, and their son Francis (Frank), my great-grandfather. We all knew Frank as “Pargie.” He died seven years before I was born, yet he was spoken of with such love that I’ve always felt close to him. One of my childhood treasures was his Bible—beautifully illustrated, with faded photographs of Anton and Margaretha, who had left Germany for a new life in Australia. It hinted at a large, close family, and years later it inspired me to start researching our Gersbach roots. The trail begins on the Rhine River, in the towns of Eltville and Oestrich-Winkel, just 8 km apart and near Frankfurt. In the 1850s, many from this region migrated to Australia as vinedressers, shepherds or farm labourers. Among them were four Gersbach men - two sets of brothers: Johann (John)  and  Anton  Johann Valentine (Valentine)  and...

Starting this first post for the Gersbach family blog has been a long time coming! Today I “virtually” joined a meeting of the Society of Australian Genealogists, where the theme was  emigration . It inspired me to share the remarkable migration story of my many-times-great-grandparents — and the broader German emigration scheme that brought them here.  This story builds on my earlier post about Jane Feeney, my great-great-grandmother, who arrived in Sydney in April 1849 on board the  Digby  as one of over 4,000 young women brought from Ireland under the  Earl Grey Famine Orphan Scheme . You can read that post  HERE .  Jane’s daughter, Margaret, married Francis (“Frank”) Gersbach. Frank was the son of   Anton Gersbach   and   Margaretha Songen , who arrived in Sydney in September 1855 before settling on the Macleay River in northern NSW near Kempsey. Anton and Margaretha were both from the picturesque wine towns of  Eltville ...