The prompt ‘Achievement’ has started me thinking about all the various
immigrant branches of my family have achieved in their new lives in Australia.
For whatever their reasons, my
original Australian immigrant ancestors made a huge leap of faith to leave
their homelands and travel to a distant country, most with little chance of
returning if their new lives proved less than they hoped.
Some travelled singly, more in
family groups, but for all it was a monumental decision. In the colonial years of Australia, travel
from Europe could take months, and for most visiting relatives ‘back home’ was
out of the question. They travelled in
the knowledge they would likely never see those they left behind again.
Communication was challenging as
well. My maternal ancestors all
emigrated to Australia well before the telephone, so letters were the main form
of communication, and it would take months for post to make its way across the
globe. Low literacy levels would also
have complicated – or prevented – much communication.
My great grandfather, James
Nicholas Clark, was born in 1856, just as the family emigrated to
Australia. The family first arrived in Port Sorrell, Tasmania, where
the family lived for at least 12 years before they crossed Bass Strait and
settled in Victoria.
I also have Irish ancestors who
travelled singly to Australia in the 1840s, settling as farmers at Eurobin in
northern Victoria. They came out well
before the potato famine to make new lives in the colony.
Then there is my German branch
of the family tree. Carl Friedrich Beseler, known in Australia as
Frederick, was born around 1810 in Hanover, Germany. He was a
shoemaker in Germany and a farmer in Australia, arriving in Adelaide on 1 April
1848 with his wife and 5 children on the ship Pauline from Bremen, Germany.
The family lived in South Australia for 7 years before travelling overland to
Victoria, where they settled near Ercildown. Several members of the
family are buried in Learmonth Cemetery.
How brave were these people to make the leap into
the unknown to travel to the other side of the world in search of better
lives? Establishing themselves and their
families in their new homeland and building successful lives was an achievement
indeed.
#52Ancestors
