A Serial Immigrant In The Family

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2 A Serial Immigrant In The Family Genealogically speaking, each family generation becomes a link in an ancestral chain that has been shaped over time by the actions taken and decisions made by our ancestors in response to events that they faced during their lives. To really know an ancestor, you need to build an identity profile that should, ideally, include information about the family members who were part of their daily life (family identity), information in relation to what your ancestor did for a living (occupational identity) and information regarding where they lived (geographical identity). To gather this background material requires a researcher to travel back through time, searching for key information footprints. Although these information footprints, can at times be very faint, they, nevertheless, can help shine a light on the life of your ancestor. My immigrant s story is about my maternal great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens, and touches on all three aspects of his life his family, occupational and geographical identities. Starting with the family identity aspect of his life, Friedrich was born on the 8 March, in the village of Uetersen, 2 in the Duchy of Holstein (now part of modern Northern Germany) his parents being Johann Diedrich Ahrens and Auguste Charlotte Henriette Ahrens née Flechtner. 3 In May 1862, Friedrich married Margaretha Maria Louise Flechtner, 4 the daughter of Johann Friedrich Magnus Flechtner and Margaretha Catharina Friederike Flechtner nee Staats. 5 In 1863, Dietrich Ahrens, a son, was born in Uetersen, in the Duchy of Holstein. 6 Other children of the marriage included Frederick Augustus, born in January 1865, in Queensland, Australia, 7 twins born in Hokitika, New Zealand in and a daughter Emma who was born at Ross, New Zealand in My great-great-grandfather Leopold was born at Ross in and another daughter, Lily Mabel was born in Hokitika in All in all, Friedrich and Margaretha had seven children, of whom six died in childhood. My great-great-grandfather Leopold was the only child to live to adulthood. During his lifetime, Friedrich married three times. His first wife, Margaretha Flechtner, who he married in Holstein in 1862, died in Friedrich married again in 1896, 13 he was widowed in and he married for the third time in Moving to the occupational identity aspect of Friedrich s life, at the time of Friedrich s birth in 1836, the Duchy of Holstein was under the Danish rule of King Frederick VI, who was also the Duke of Holstein. Friedrich, during his time in the Duchy of Holstein, lived life as a German speaking Danish subject and became a Schlachter or butcher by trade. 16 In March 1854, Great Britain and France entered the Crimean War in support of Turkey which, at the time, was at war with Russia. The British army experienced great difficulty in recruiting troops for this war and after much debate, the British

3 government authorised the recruitment of mercenary foreign legion soldiers to fight alongside British troops in the Crimea. 17 In May 1855, agents acting on behalf of Great Britain began recruiting soldiers in Hamburg. 18 Friedrich signed up as a soldier for military service with the mercenary British German Legion (BGL) and was allocated to the BGL 2 nd Light Infantry 19 which was sent to England for training. 20 The BGL 2 nd Light Infantry, subsequently arrived at Scutari, 21 on the Crimean peninsula in November 1855 but never saw frontline service, as the Crimea War ended in early After the BGL 2 nd Light Infantry returned to England, it was demobilised and Friedrich returned home to Holstein and resumed his trade of butcher a trade calling he was to follow for the rest of his life. Moving on to the geographical identity aspect of Friedrich s life, as stated earlier, Friedrich and Margaretha s first child, Dietrich Ahrens, was born in 1863 in Uetersen, Holstein. At that time, the region was teetering on the brink of war as a consequence of Denmark s unilateral action of trying to change the constitutions of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein - an action which was bitterly opposed by both Prussia and Austria. 22 As it so happened, the appearance of agents in Hamburg once again was to impact on the life of Friedrich Ahrens. This time, the agents were immigration agents, acting on behalf of the Queensland government in Australia. These agents were offering free passages and land to people from the German states who wished to immigrate to Queensland. 23 The decision to immigrate from one country to live permanently in another country is a difficult lifestyle decision to make as it involves the cutting of ties to family, community and customs. It also requires that a person give up their identity in a world that is known and familiar to them and establish a new identity in a world of the unknown and unfamiliar. Friedrich and Margaretha made the decision to immigrate and with their son Dietrich, left Hamburg on the ship San Francisco on 8 August 1863 bound for Moreton Bay, Queensland. 24 Some time after arriving in Moreton Bay on 30 November 1863, Friedrich and his family moved to Cleveland, a township, which was situated close to Brisbane. 25 By 1865, both Friedrich and Margaretha had anglicised their names to John Frederick Ahrens and Margaret Ahrens respectively. 26 At this point in most immigrant stories, the storytelling focus would normally shift to detailing how the immigrant ancestor adapted to life in their new country. My immigrant story takes a different direction as my great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens now known as John Frederick Ahrens, was, in fact, a serial immigrant in that, having immigrated once, he then repeated the experience no less than three more times during his lifetime! Sometime during 1866 and 1867, John Frederick and Margaret Ahrens made the decision to leave the quiet backwater of Cleveland in Queensland and immigrate to the West Coast gold rush town of Hokitika in New Zealand. John Frederick continued to work as a butcher in Hokitika and the neighbouring town of Ross for over 14 years. In November 1882, John Frederick and Margaret sold their house at Hokitika 27 and moved east to the town of Nelson where they lived until late Again, John Frederick and his wife, Margaret decided to immigrate, this time taking with them their only living child, my great-great-grandfather, Leopold, who would have been about thirteen years of age at the time.

4 The Ahrens family arrived in Sydney, Australia, around 1885 and settled in the suburb of Balmain.28 John Frederick continued his trade as a butcher whilst in Sydney. My great-great-grandfather, Leopold married my great-great-grandmother, Catherine Jane Mitchell Moir, in early In 1894, after living for almost nine years in Sydney, John Frederick and Margaret decided to immigrate again this time back to New Zealand! They travelled on the ship Tasmania arriving in Auckland, New Zealand on 30 April Margaret died just five months after returning to New Zealand in John Frederick bought a butcher business in Auckland in and continued in the butcher trade in Auckland until 1902 when he decided to retire from business due to ill health.33 During this time, he became a naturalised British subject on 15 July The life of my immigrant ancestor, Friedrich aka John Frederick Ahrens came to a newsworthy end in Auckland on Empire Day the 25th May John Frederick, a member of the Auckland Empire Veteran s Association,35 paraded with other war veterans at Government House he is the person who is third from the left in the front row in the photograph below. Veterans Parade Empire Day 1903 Auckland 36 After the parade, the war veterans were transported to the foundation stone laying ceremony at the newly built Veterans Home. It was during the journey home from the ceremony that John Frederick Ahrens suffered a heart attack and died.37 The Auckland Star newspaper, in reporting his death the same day, also provided a brief obituary. They wrote that Ahrens was well known on the West Coast in bygone days, For a number of years Ahrens vended pork sausages about the city, but latterly has been living quietly at Mount Albert. He bore an excellent character, and his sudden death under such circumstances will be deeply regretted. 38

5 When my great-great-great-grandfather, Friedrich Ahrens, stepped off the wharf in Hamburg in 1863 and boarded the ship San Francisco to immigrate to Queensland in Australia, he left behind his identity as a Holsteiner. Almost forty years later, he was buried in Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland 39 as a naturalised British subject of New Zealand, in a coffin covered with a beautiful floral cross entwined with red and white flowers and blue ribbons sent by His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand with kind expressions of sympathy. 40 To add to the occasion, some 50 members of the Veterans' Association attending his funeral marched behind the hearse containing his coffin. 41 A fitting finale for a person who, as a serial immigrant, had spent a great part of his life seeking a place to call home. 1 Emigration out of Schleswig-Holstein, 19th century, Rootdigger Genealogy in Schleswig-Holstein, online, < A-file.doc page 12> accessed 20 April Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, Friedrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Rootdigger, op. cit., online, < A-file.doc page 12> 4 Ibid., online, < F-file.doc page 43> accessed 20 April Ibid. 6 Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line], op. cit., Dietrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Certified copy of birth certificate for Frederick Augustus Ahrens, Registration Number 1865/B3506, Queensland State Archives, issued at Brisbane 25 February New Zealand Birth Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online, < %3dbirths>, Birth certificate entries for unnamed Ahrens twins - Registration Numbers 1868/22994 and 1868/22997 respectively accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1870/26008 accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1872/26477 accessed 17 July Ibid., Birth certificate index Registration Number 1880/10444 accessed 17 July Non Certified copy of death certificate for Margaret Ahrens, Registration Number 1894/3883, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, issued at Wellington 10 April New Zealand Marriage Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online < e%3dmarriages >Marriage certificate entry for John Frederick Ahrens - Registration Number 1896/409 accessed 17 July New Zealand Death Certificate Index, New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, online %3Ddeaths Death certificate entry for Margaret Ahrens - Registration Number 1901/3856 accessed 17 July New Zealand Marriage Certificate Index, op. cit., Marriage certificate entry for John Frederick Ahrens - Registration Number 1902/2284 accessed 17 July Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line] op. cit., Friedrich Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Emrys Wynn Jones, A Leaf On a Turbulent River : Ensign Simner and the British German Legion, , South African Military History Society, Military History Journal Vol 13 No 2 (December 2004), online < accessed 11 January Ibid. 19 Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 134, 7 June 1900, Page 6, Queens Birthday, online, available from < > accessed 11 February 2013.

6 20 Emrys Wynn Jones, op. cit. 21 Frederick Ernest Whitton, History of the Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment - Volume 1, (Luton : Andrews UK, 2012), p Jonathan Martin Kolkey, Germany on the March : a reinterpretation of war and domestic politics over the past two centuries, (Lanham : University Press of America, 1995), pp provides some background to the political situation in Holstein in Queensland. Queensland Government Gazette 1861 Volume 2, online, available from < > pp 15-19, accessed 19 April Staatsarchiv Hamburg. Hamburg Passenger Lists, [database on-line] op. cit., Frederich and Margaretha Ahrens data downloaded 1 March Certified copy of birth certificate for Frederick Augustus Ahrens, Registration Number 1865/B3506, op. cit. 26 Ibid. 27 West Coast Times, Issue 4233, 11 November 1882, Page 3 Advertisements Column 2, online, available from < > accessed 5 April W F Pascoe Ltd, Sands Sydney, Suburban and Country Commercial Directory, online, < > <Select 1887-part5.pdf > p14 by City of Sydney Library accessed 2 March Certified copy of marriage certificate for Leopold Ahrens and Catherine Jane Mitchell Moir, Registration Number 206/1893, New South Wales Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry, issued at Sydney 4 March "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, ," index and images, Family Search < Ahrens, 30 Apr 1894; citing Tasmania, Ship, Arrival Port, National Archives, Wellington; FHL microfilm accessed 5 January Non Certified copy of death certificate - Margaret Ahrens, Registration Number 1894/3883, op. cit. 32 New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9787, 6 April Page 1 Advertisements Column 5, online, available from < > accessed 15 May Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 98, 26 April 1902, Page 8 Advertisements Column 7, online, available from < > accessed 19 November Ancestry.com. New Zealand, Naturalisations, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, John Frederick Ahrens data downloaded 1 September Empire Veterans' Association. District of Auckland (N.Z.), Rules of the Empire Veterans Association, District of Auckland, N.Z.: with list of members, Auckland, N.Z. : Scott Printing Co., J F Ahrens entry in Alphabetical list of members. 36 NZ Graphic, 06 June 1903, p1581, online, available from Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, < Type <NZG > into ID selection row on page accessed 2 March New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12281, 27 May 1903, Page 5, Local And General News, online, available from < > accessed 9 October Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 123, 25 May 1903, Page 5, online, available from < > accessed 9 October In one final twist to the story of Friedrich aka John Frederick Ahrens, his burial record for the 27 May 1903 shows that he was buried under the name of Herman Ahrens in Waikumete cemetery. This would have been the result of his widow, Honora supplying this name to the burial authorities. Given that the official record for his death certificate shows his name as John Frederick Ahrens, I do not know why his widow had him buried under the name of Herman Ahrens or why she informed the newspapers that his name was Herman Ahrens. 40 Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 126, 28 May 1903, Page 4, Column 8, Untitled, online, available from < > accessed 14 March Ibid.