Overseas enquiries

There are still a few enquiries from overseas. In a recent one from Germany the enquirer had a copy of an 1860’s marriage certificate, recording a marriage that was held in a home in Melbourne. The enquirer was convinced it could not have been a genuine marriage because, in Germany, a couple can only be legally married in a Government marriage office. The couple might then have a blessing of the marriage in a church or at their home. In Australia, the clergy are included in the people who do all the legal paperwork etc. for the Government and the actual marriage can be held in a church, or home, or outdoors, or in a registry office.

I wish to personally thank Herbert Mees who is fluent in German and is a great help to me, especially with records of early marriages in Melbourne. The Trinity German Lutheran Church in Melbourne has excellent records going back to the 1850’s.

Pastor Schondorf

An interesting account of the pastor of the Moravian Brethren and his ministry to the early Wends at Ebenezer in South Australia, by Trudla Malinkowa, and translated into English by Chris Greenthaner, can be found on the becker-zwar.com website. Trudla Malinkowa (German: Gertrud Mahling) is a leading scholar of the Wends, and lives in Bautzen in Germany.