In 2013 I came across a very interesting grave in the Newstead Cemetery. The inscription on the grave said that Henry Mertin and his wife Christina were buried there. It was not the surname Mertin that attracted my attention, but the first names, Henry and Christina, because I knew from my family history work that there was, in my family tree, an interesting couple with those names who had lived in Yandoit in the mid-1800’s. The surname though, was wrong . The couple in my family tree were Henry and Christina Martin, not Mertin. So the name was wrong, but close enough for me to follow up to find if this couple was in fact the one I was interested in.
But first, why am I interested in the history of the Newstead/Yandoit area at all? Very briefly, my great grandfather and great grandmother came separately to Australia for the gold rush. They met, married and settled in Yandoit in the 1850’s. They ran a hotel and store in Yandoit and lived there for the rest of their lives. Some of their descendants lived there until the 1940’s. My great grandfather came to Australia from America, and my great grandmother came from Germany.
I have always been interested in the lives of these ancestors of mine, and particularly in my great grandmother, Anna Elisabetha Dern. Although my father knew a lot about our family history, all he could tell us about Anna Elisabetha was that she came from Germany, at the age of 16, apparently accompanied only by another girl of about the same age.
Over many years of research, I have found a lot more information about Anna Elisabetha, why she came to Australia and who came with her. In fact, many German immigrants came here in the mid 1850’s to escape very hard times in Germany, and Anna Elisabetha was actually accompanied in the sailing ship that brought her here by many other Germans from the same village including some close relatives. These included two brothers and a number of first cousins. Several of the cousins had the first name of Christina, a very popular name for girls in Germany at the time.
That’s enough background. What follows is an account of what happened to one of those cousins, Christina Dern. Continue reading
