A useful collection of early Australian marriage and baptism records now on CD

One of the objectives of the Wendish Heritage Society is to assist people who are interested in researching their Wendish or German heritage. The Society is fortunate to possess a considerable archive of valuable information, and individual members are working on projects to make this information readily accessible to the interested public.

One such project which has recently been completed by Joel Blackburn is the computerisation of the Marriage and Baptism records of the Lutheran Pastor, Andreas Kappler, who was active in Australia from 1848 to 1875.

The reverend Dr. Henry Proeve translated Kappler’s original records from German into English, and collated the vast treasure of information onto about 900 filing cards. Each card bears at least two names, and often many more, together with detailed information on marriages and baptisms.

From this valuable beginning, Joel Blackburn has produced an easy-to-search database of more than 4000 records. As an added bonus, the database includes a searchable list of 1150 place names mentioned in the records.

The database is now installed on the computers in the Society’s Research Centre, and will shortly be available for sale in CD form. We will let you know on this page when the CD is ready for sale.

Congratulations to Joel on this valuable achievement.