Hi Valerie
Felix Victor Steinmetz was born in Sagan, Silesia, Prussia in 1949. He did go to Sth Africa after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Prussian Army. His older brother Heinrich was born in 1845 in Sprotten, Silesia. Felix did marry Salomina in 1874, but they divorced apparently - don't know when. Felix offered his services to the British during the Boer War. He left Sth Africa on board the ship Glaslyn, bound for Mauritius, He boarded a French ship and disembarked in Italy, he travelled overland back to his home town.
He moved to England, and married Henrietta Cecilia Nelson in Shoreditch, Middlesex England. In the few records I have from my sister-in-law (now deceased), I have their marriage certificate, where it mentions that Felix was divorce from Salomina Susanna Boswell,Felix and Henrietta married in 1887, they already had two children Beatrice & Gerhard, in 1888, they boarded the Habsburg, with by now three children, bound for Melbourne, Australia. Felix was a Music Teacher or Professor of Music. According to one of the documents I have it was Felix's mother, Josephine Wunsch Steinmetz who instilled in him a love of music, which he pursued when he returned to Sagan. My late husband's father was the youngest son of Felix and Henrietta. Felix and Henrietta had eight children, but two died in infancy. Felix and Heinrich had an older (?) brother, who died in 1900, but I have not been able to find a name for him.
I hope this helps, I am just a newbie at this ancestry search, but I have two sons now both in their 40's who haven't known very much about their forebears. Felix died before my husband was born so he and his siblings never knew their grandfather.
