The Nieder-Weisel Story

THE SHIPS

The passenger lists of all those ships which arrived in Victoria from 1852 (when records commenced) up until 1863 were examined by Kelvin Williams, and details of passengers with names that were known to have been in use in Nieder-Weisel were extracted. The names were listed in roughly chronological order of the ships' arrivals, and each passenger uniquely identified by a reference number – S001 to S899. Many of them were later deleted when it became clear that they were not immigrants from Nieder-Weisel.

Kelvin's list, covering three pages, can be viewed at Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3.

When available, the name of the ship's captain, tonnage of the ship and total number of passengers on board are shown. The number of the ticket issued to the passenger is given, where applicable. Passengers may be described by sex (m or f), age or age range (ad[ult], ch[ild], or in[fant]) and marital state (m[arried] or u[nmarried]). An infant was younger than 12 months; a child less than 12 or, in some cases, 15. The occupation of adult males and the relationship of females or children are usually shown.

On ships out of German ports, the place of birth of the passenger rather than occupation or relationship may be given. The date of leaving the home port and the date of reaching Melbourne are shown wherever they have been logged.

The names on many of the passenger lists are spelt as the shipping clerks (usually English) heard them spoken by the German passengers; in those cases where this has resulted in a phonetic (and incorrect) rendering of the name, the correct spelling is recorded in the Occupation column.

In some groups there were individuals who were not from Nieder-Weisel; they were often from the nearby villages such as Ostheim, Griedel, Hoch-Weisel, and Lang-Gons. Others were children of Nieder-Weisel migrants who were born when their parents were living in England and were not, strictly speaking, emigrants from Nieder-Weisel (unless their parents took them to the village before emigrating to Victoria).

Not all the shipping lists have survived. Some immigrants who are known to have come from Nieder-Weisel were not found in the surviving records held by the Public Records Office in Victoria; their names are listed on Page 4 (not in any particular sequence) in the block of numbers S900 to S999.

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OCEAN CHIEF (6/11/1855 - 26/1/1856)
From Liverpool; 1,092 tonne; Captain J Tobin; 220 passengers; 82 days; the purser lost the passenger list over-board and had to re-write them from memory
Jakob HAUSER (1833-1903)    Konrad HAUSER (1838-1909)    Georg SCHIMPF (1834-1909)

P C KENCH (12/7/1859 - 11/1859)
From Hamburg; 347 tonne; Captain Kohn
Konrad WORNER (1835-?)

PHILOSOPHER (1/12/1868 - 27/4/1869)
From Liverpool; 148 days
Juliana MULLER (1852-1935)

POMONA (26/2/1857 - 30/5/1857)
From Liverpool; 1,265 tonne; Captain William Benton; 176 passengers; 94 days
Johann Konrad VORBACH (1826-1901)

QUEEN OF THE EAST (16/11/1857 - 24/2/1858)
From Liverpool; 1,285 tonne; Captain L Bilton; 234 passengers; 101 days
Christina BILL (1840-?)    Elisabetha BROEK (1819-1868)    Ambrosius HAUB (1836-1876)    Elisabetha HAUSER (1832-1912)    Katharina HILDEBRAND (1843-1927)    Konrad HILDEBRAND (1809-1895)    Konrad HILDEBRAND (1840-1919)    Anna Elisabetha JUNG (1807-1875)    Anna Margaretha KRAUSGRILL (1846-1865)    Elisabetha KRAUSGRILL (1843-1926)    Jacob KRAUSGRILL (1843-?)    Konrad KRAUSGRILL (1810-1868)    Johannes MAAS (1819-1872)    Philipp MAAS (1819-1865)    Anna Elisabetha MULLER (1846-1942)    Anna Margaretha MULLER (1848-1911)    Christina MULLER (1841-1898)   Johann Konrad MULLER (1815-1901)    Ludwig MULLER (1809-1881)    Ludwig MULLER (1837-?)    Philipp MULLER (1843-1930)    Anna Maria SCHIMPF (1836-?)    Ambrosius STUDT (1832-?)    Anna Margaretha WILHELM (1812-1889)

RED JACKET (20/9/1855 - 6/12/1855)
From Liverpool; 1,597 tonne; Boston-built; 244 passengers; 77 days; so named because of the coat adorning the effigy of the Indian Chief on her prow
Elisabetha HILDEBRAND (1817-?)    Christina JUNG (1847-1907)    Christoph JUNG (1811-1884)    Konrad JUNG (1839-?)    Maria Katharina JUNG (1843-?)

RED JACKET (20/5/1856 - 11/8/1856)
From Liverpool; 1,597 tonne; Boston-built; Captain M O'Halloran; about 400 passengers; 84 days; so named because of the coat adorning the effigy of the Indian Chief on her prow
Anna Margaretha BILL (1831-1906) Anna Maria BILL (1840-?) Johann Jakob BILL (1830-1870) Anna Elisabetha BODENROEDER (1834-1858) Christina HAUB (1839-1913) Katharina Elisabetha HAUB (1836-1876) Anna Margaretha HAUSER (1839-1861) Anna Margaretha KISSLER (1840-1875) Katharina KISSLER (1841-1883) Konrad KISSLER (1836-1858) Anna Juliana REUTER (1822-?) Katharina REUTER (1839-?) Maria Elisabetha RIEGELHUTH (1832-1894) Ambrosius SCHIMPF (1831-1870) Georg SCHMIDT (1821-?)

RED JACKET (20/11/1857 - 2/1858)
From Liverpool; 1,597 tonne; Boston-built; so named because of the coat adorning the effigy of the Indian Chief on her prow
Anna Margaretha MAAS (1841-1928) Christoph MAAS (1836-1858)

SHALIMAR (22/8/1862 - 15/11/1862)
From Liverpool; 1,591 tonne; Captain Harley; 438 passengers; 86 days
Juliana HAUSER (1847-1889) Peter Karl HAUSER (1850-1909) Johannes HEINZ (1849-1905) Konrad PLOUGH (1858-?) Margaretha PLOUGH (1854-1920) Katharina WETZEL (1832-1870)

Sir W F WILLIAMS (27/5/1857 - 19/8/1857, then CITY OF HOBART (29/8/1857 - 31/8/1857)
From Liverpool to Hobart; Captain Godfrey V Bentley; 318 passengers; 85 days. The passenger list was rewritten after the original list was lost overboard; also lost overboard was the ship's purser. Most of the people aboard were assisted bounty passengers bound for Hobart Town, but the German immigrants paid full fares of about £20 per adult.