The brothers C.L. August Voigt (my great great grandfather) and Rudolph A.F. Voigt migrated to
South Australia in 1855 (28th August to 19th December). To commemorate the 150th anniversary of this epic voyage,
about 70 members of the Voigt and Vogt families gathered on 30th October 2005 at the South Australian Migration Museum
(migration.history.sa.gov.au/visit-us).
See photos below.
I was appointed by the Voigt/Vogt family history committee to give the main speech, the text of which is given below.
Soon after the migration, August was persuaded to "correct" the spelling of his surname from Voigt to Vogt.
The letter "i" – redundant in German pronunciation of this extremely common name, seems to be a fashion in Friesland (north western Germany).
The migrants' grandfather is known to have moved from Jever in Ostfriesland to Parchen in north eastern Germany around 1800.
Brian A. Voigt, a descendant of Rudolph, also made a short speech.
On behalf of the Voigt/Vogt family history committee, I welcome you here this morning. We’re celebrating the 150th
anniversary of our ancestors’ migration from a northern “German” state to the British colony of South Australia. (Bear
in mind that the nations of Germany and Australia did not yet exist).
To permanently commemorate this migration, the committee has purchased 2 bricks here in the courtyard of the S.A.
Migration Museum – one for August and one for Rudolph.
Let’s first pause to think about the big journey. Three young adult siblings found living conditions in Parchen so difficult that they decided to leave their widowed mother in the care of their 2 sisters, never to return. The Elbe river was only about 10 km from home, so we assume they took the 250 km trip downstream to the sea port of Hamburg. That would have taken a few days. Then the processing of emigration documents before finally boarding the Steinwarder and setting sail on the 28th August.
As if the farewells, travelling, and formalities weren’t enough, there were infant children to consider. August and
wife Friedericke’s son was 7˝ months old at departure. Sister Charlotte travelled with her husband and 5 year old son,
and then gave birth to a daughter just 6 days after arriving at Port Adelaide. There were serious health concerns,
travelling almost 4 months on a 3-mast sailing ship, considerably downmarket from the QE2.
I wonder whether they knew that on the same ship, making the same voyage 13 months earlier, 3 women and 4 children died.
Brother Rudolph avoided children problems by not yet being married.
One may wonder what they thought about the impending language barrier in a strange and distant land. (A few of us have visited Germany and had the same problem in reverse). On the positive side, they looked forward to meeting up with a few friends and distant relatives. We know that they did immediately catch up with the Matthias family, who themselves had only just migrated from a neighbouring town. Australian-born children from both families married and became my great grandparents.
It was undoubtedly their Christian faith and understanding of the story of Abraham’s calling to a new country that gave them the confidence to proceed on such a long and risky voyage.
