From the Rhine to New South Wales – The Gersbach Story

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...

In December 2020,  FamilySearch  published the church records for the Catholic Diocese of Limburg, Hessen-Nassau, Germany covering the years 1601 to 1919.  Excitingly, it includes many baptismal, marriage and burial records for Eltville and Oestrich-Winkel where our ancestors lived.  You can read about the collection  HERE.    As I looked through the Gersbach entries, most were for Winkel not Eltville.  Our family bible shows that Anton Gersbach and Margaretha Söngen's marriage took place on 18 February 1855 in Eltville.  I've located the church  record  and it's in 1855 but the location is Winkel.  My focus was always on Eltville...after all Anton and Margaretha called their property Aldavilla and the family story was that it was after their home town.  But then again...Eltville and Winkel are only 8 kilometres apart. So here's the beautiful St Aegidius (St Giles) in Winkel As one of my 2021 "lockdown" proj...

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...