From the Rhine to New South Wales – The Gersbach Story

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...

Eltville, Germany Catharina is my paternal 3rd great-grandmother.  She was baptised in the Catholic Church in Eltville on the Rhine River on 19 September 1801.  Her parents were Adam Klumm and Catharina Stein.  She had at least two sisters - Anna Maria (b1806) and Barbara (b 1818).   Catharina married Phillip Söngen (sometimes recorded as Songer).  They had at least three children - Margaretha (known as Margaret, my 2nd great-grandmother) was born on 16 June 1830 followed by Phillip and Catharina.   Catharina died on 6 June 1887 in Winkel only a few kilometres from Eltville.  Her husband had died many years earlier in 1848.  Margaret married Anton Gersbach early in 1855 and set our for the long voyage to Australia a few weeks later.  Margaret and Anton arrived here in September 1855 just 2 months before the birth of their first child and Catharina's first grandchild, Phillip.   They went on to have 10 children.  Two died as infants....

The  Society of Australian Genealogists’ “Hang Outs”  are giving me the perfect opportunity to turn my research into a systematic record — and then into blog posts! Yesterday’s session let me tie together the stories I’ve shared over the past two weeks with my favourite topic:  genetic genealogy . If you’ve done a DNA test and would like help understanding your results, feel free to contact me via the email above. You can read about  Jane Feeney , my second great-grandmother, [HERE]. You can read about  Anton and Margaretha Gersbach , my second great-grandparents, [HERE]. Next, I’ll be showing how DNA is helping me map my genetic makeup through my paternal grandmother,  Essie Woodlands  — and why genetic evidence is so important for  proving  our family trees. Louise Coakley is an Australian genetic genealogist, member of SAG and publisher of  Genie1 .  DNA does indeed have amazing power and I hope the information in this post de...