John P C Smith, I need assistance to find details of his parents, John Smith, mother Sophia Smith nee Takentein,

Question

Hello, my name is Graeme Smith. Both my parents came to Australia from the same region in Germany in 1854 aboard two separate ships. My great grand mother Hanna Marthalena Eliza Stieger was born 1853 in Holstein, she travelled with other family members on the 'Malvina Vidal'.

My great grandfather John Peter Christopher Smith (Wiki Tree 181566) was born about 1832 in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwiren and traveled on either "Albins" or "Albino", unable to determine exact name of ship. Arriving Australia December 1854 possibly traveled as a shepherd  with Merino sheep being imported to Australia from Mecklenburg region,  organised by Count Strzelecki chairman of the Peel River Land and Mineral Company.

His parents are reported to be John Smith and Sophia Smith nee Takentein.

I would appreciate any advice on both sides of the family, Stieger and Smith.

Comments

Hi Graeme - I copied/pasted your question from the Germany project join post into this G2G post. I also added a couple more tags so you'll get more views. Traci

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You wroght as birth for John Smith: 1832 Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Holy Roman Empire

That is not possible, because the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist in 1806.

Answer 1

Hi Graeme, your question does not give any information with which to help you.

Do you have a profile id, a place (country, state) dates etc, thanks?

Answer 2

Hello Graeme! John Smith is such a common name! Most of my German ancestors were given names such as Johann, etc. Sophia Takentein is probably the best bet to try and track down. I was unable to come up with anything using Rootsearch or some of the other big ancestry sites at this time with the last name spelling you provided. Found some with close birth dates, but slightly different last name spelling, and none married to a John Smith. Sorry. Maybe someone else can have better luck. I'll keep looking around though!

Answer 3

Hi Graeme,

There are a lot of census registers in Holstein. Do you have an idea from where in Holstein Hanna Marthalena (or Magdalena?) Elisabeth Stieger (or Steiger?) came?

The same with Johann Christopher Peter Schmidt from where he came in Mecklenburg-Schwerin?

Comments

Marthalena is an extremely rare given name; therefore, it will be quite possible to find her if you know at least the area in Holstein where she came from.

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I checked the first name Marthalena in the census reports Holstein, Schleswig 1803, 1835, 1840, 1845 and Mecklenburg 1819: no first name Marthalena. I know that she was not born at that time, but if that really is her first name and we know from which area she came I will find her soon if the records are avaible.

For the same Duchys and years I checked Stieger: only 39 entrys together in all 3 duchys.

Another idea: Do you have the name of her father?

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For Ta(c)kenstein 0 entrys in all areas at all times

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Hannah Stieger was born in Grabow in 1853.

Sophia Takentein was the name of his mother on his marriage certificate. As he couldn't write, and with his accent, the name maybe slightly different.

John P C Smith is reported to have come from a village called 'Bohnert' near Reiseby. My grandfather was named Bennett after the name of the village. In saying that, pronunciations and spelling names from his manner of speaking could lead to incorrect spellings.

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OK, it becomes a little bit clearer.

Hanna Stieger came from Grabow; Grabow is a town in Mecklenburg.

Rieseby and Bohnert are villages in Schleswig.

I will have a look into the records.

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Bohnert belongs to the municipality Kosel and also to the parish Kosel.

I checked parish records in Kosel and Grabow but I could not find your ancestors.

Tomorrow I will try it again.

Are you sure with the locations?

Then John came from Schleswig-Holstein and Hanna from Mecklenburg.

Answer 4

Welcome to Wikitree!  I added some sources for your grandmother's second husband in the hope I might locate more on her (no luck).

I'm sure you know that your grandfather's birth name is NOT Smith, but rather Schmidt (or something closer to that).  Stieger may well be Steiger, which I think is more common.

Where did you find the maiden name Takentein?  (I'm wondering if a document has been erroneously transcribed; Fraktur is often misread.)

Best of luck in your search!

Comments

Good idea. Do you have any documents where the names are written. Please post them here or give us a link to read them.

Sometimes more eyes will come to a better result.

Answer 5

For now, I'll give up.

I spent a few more hours today researching the two families, but largely unsuccessfully.

There actually was a Stieger family in Grabow, Mecklenburg. I found the name there in 1808. In the 1819 census they are called Siegert, with a note that they came from Ahrensfelde, Kingdom of Saxony.  Because of the completely different dialect, it may well be that the name was misunderstood.

For the shepherd Schmidt from Bohnert in Schleswig-Holstein  I have unfortunately no result at all. Although the church book Kosel has registers, the name was not to be found.
But since he was a shepherd, it may well be that the family lived there, but moved around. Therefore, the birth around 1832 may well be recorded in one of the neighboring communities. Rieseby I have also already looked up, there he was not born.

Comments

Hello Dieter,

Thank you very much for your efforts. I will again try to ascertain which ship he came to Australia on. As far as I know, he traveled with the the Merino sheep from the Mecklenburg-Schwiren flock to New South Wales, Australia arriving December 1854 on either 'The Albins' or 'The Albino'. I coudn't decipher 's' or 'o' on the copy of his Australian Naturalization Certificate.

If I can find out which ship, I may be able to trace back to Port of Departure in Germany for other details.

It is believed his father's name may have been Peter John Smith?

Ms. Stieger travelled on the ship 'Malvina Vidal' with her father John, his second wife Anna Riennis, her brothers Carl and theodore arriving in NSW October 1854. Mothers name was Doris Stieger.

Thank you so much for your efforts

Graeme Smith

South Grafton. NSW. Australia

Answer 6

In searching in Australia, I would be searching through Trove newspaper articles, looking for death notices, which include other known family names. That is the best way I have found to confirm certificates with very common names.