2 Hamburg

We do not know whether Anna stayed in Lüchow, but after August's death all six of the children of whom we know more were living in Hamburg. The four male children all became merchants. Georg Friedrich, normally known as Friedrich, who is the common ancestor of the Australian Heins, will be dealt with here last and in more detail.

Of the daughters, Maria Sophia was listed as a godmother of Friedrich Hein's first child in Hamburg, unmarried at the age of 35. But there is no record of her dying in Hamburg. It is possible she emigrated.

Margaretha Friederica married Carl Heinrich Christian Schwere, had one child and descendants lived in Hamburg.

There is no later record pertaining to Sophia Magdalena.

Friedrich Hein had two older brothers, August Ludewig and Heinrich Ludewig, both of whom became merchants in Hamburg and died there. August died in 1870, and had two sons and a daughter, all of whom also died in Hamburg. Heinrich, married in St Michaelis, had died in 1863, was listed as a wine merchant. Searches have not yielded any children of them, so given they died in Hamburg we assume they had no children.

Younger brother Carl Dietrich is listed as Caffeetier, married Catharina Elisabeth Schumacher, aged 18, in St Petri, during 1833. They had one son, Carl Alexander Peter, born in Hamburg and christened in St Petri in 1836. He is likely the only child as both parents died young, Caroline in 1841 and Carl in 1843, both in Hamburg, and in fact this son also died as an infant. Of much interest is that Anna Dorothea Lüders is listed as a godmother of this child. It appears then she is likely the paternal grandmother and presumably remarried. The other listed godparent is the boy's maternal grandfather.

Georg Friedrich Hein

Which brings us to Friedrich Hein.

He became a Konditor in No. 3 neue Springeltwiete. The map shows part of the dam of Alstersee (the large lake in central Hamburg) at top. the Rathaus just below, across to Hauptkirche St Jacobi (Main church Jacobi) and then 250 metres south east to Springeltwiete 3. A photo of the modern site, which includes a tall office or apartment building, would not help picture what it must have looked like in 1829.

This house and business was just around the corner from St Jacobi Hauptkirche, seen above in 2016.

In 1829 Friedrich Hein married Auguste Christine Louise Schnell in Wandsbek, then in a different county but now central Hamburg.

Auguste Schnell had ancestry from Berlin, with family names Uster, Schmidt and Bertzimmer, her grandfather Caspar Uster being listed as a silkworker, born in Berlin and died there aged 76.

At her marriage Christine is listed as third daughter of Friedrich and Auguste. In fact there is evidence of 12 children, six of whom died either as infants or before marriageable age. Julius, who also migrated to Australia is the fifth child. Two definitely produced many descendants in Germany, another gives rise also to an identifiable grandchild in Hamburg but no-one further, and the final one could have descendants but not in Hamburg and not traceable in Australia either. In any case there is more discussion on the children and more detail on the German descendants, including some who fought for and died in for Germany in both World Wars, in the essay on this site "Relatives in Germany".

Christine and Julius Hein

We now come to the two siblings who migrated to Australia. Christine migrated early, by unknown means, finding herself in Adelaide in 1855 where she married Emil Boehm, born in Breslau, Silesia, now Wroclaw, Poland, soon after. We feel it likely she did know Emil in Hamburg and we think Emil had been there before 1849 when he migrated aboard the Australia. It is not clear where he was in the meantime, although we speculate in chapter 4.

Julius, who we will call JAL Hein, to avoid confusion with others by the same name, stayed in Hamburg for some time. In 1861 in St Georg Church (seen above in 2016) he married Ida Friederike Eleonore Karow. They had five children born in Germany, August Georg Heinrich (1865, Hamburg), Julius (Lou) Heinrich Gustav (1868, Barmbek), Ida Hermina (1870, Hamburg), Martha Adele (1873, Hamburg) and Albert Rudolf (1874, Hamburg). They later lived at Rönnhaidtstr. 21, Barmbek (near Wandsbek).

In 1865 Friedrich and Auguste were getting older, left Springeltwiete and moved to Barmbek to live with JAL Hein and family. Essentially it seems JAL Hein and family were his parents' minders in their later years.

Friedrich was suffering dementia and was admitted at some time to Friedrichsberg Hospital, Hamburg-Barmbek (a dementia hospital still operating as such in 2016, seen above in 2013), where he died in 1866. Auguste lived a little longer and died in St Georg Hospital in 1873. St Georg Hospital is in Wandsbek and is today one of Hamburg's main public hospitals.

Having seen his parents pass away, and with their own family complete, the family departed on 26 Sep 1876 aboard the Herschel for Adelaide, where they arrived on 12 Jan 1877. They then joined Christine and Emil and their family in Mt Gambier. The remainder of the stories will be told in subsequent chapters.

It should be noted that the two pioneering families are honoured by the above plaque in Mt Gambier's Nelson Park.