Letters from 19th C Wend Immigrants
An important project is the future publication of Wendish emigrant letters sent from Australia to Lusatia during the nineteenth century.
The first of these letters were obtained by Kevin Zwar through the efforts of Pastor Siegfried Albert in Saxony. Some were discovered by George Nielsen and Trudla Malinkowa during their research in Germany. These letters have been translated into English by a number of people in Australia, including Dr Thomas Darragh who has contributed two examples for us to publish.
by Andreas Kaiser
Andreas Kaiser (1827-1912), was a Wend who arrived in Melbourne aboard the Pribislaw in February 1850. At the time of writing this letter, he had settled on land at Hawthorn…
> read moreby Agneta Stephan
Agneta Stephan née Kaiser, or Hanza Stefanowa née Khjezor in Wendish (c.1813-91) arrived in Australia aboard the Pribislaw in February 1850 with her husband, Johann. After eventually settling at Gnadenthal near Penshurst…
> read moreby Johann Zwar
(This letter was published in the Wendish newspaper Tydsenske Nowiny in 1852. In 1977 Siegfried Albert photocopied the letters in the archives in Saxony and sent them, along with a typed…
> read moreby Johann Zwar
(This letter was published in the Wendish newspaper Tydsenske Nowiny in 1852. In 1977 Siegfried Albert photocopied the letters in the archives in Saxony and sent them, along with a typed German translation,…
> read more