Johann Georg ZIMMER 1834-?
On “Victoria”, out of Hamburg in August 1854, was a group of Nieder-Weiselerns including members of the Riegelhuth, Studt, Marx, Klein, Winter, Seip, Heinz and Reuter families, all in the 30 or under age range. There was also a George Zimmer, age 15 or older.
The only Georg Zimmers born in the village in the period 1800 to 1840 were:
* Johann Georg born 1802, who married Katharina Jung of Hausen in 1832;
* Johann Georg born 1828, son of Konrad, for whom no confirmation or marriage record has been found;
* Johann Georg, son of Johannes, 1821 – 1849; and
* Johann Georg, born 6 Nov 1834 to Konrad Zimmer, linen-weaver, and Anna Maria Bill, confirmed in 1848.
It is most improbable that Johann Georg born 1802 would have been with this group of young men. It seems certain that Johann Georg born 1828 did not survive to adulthood. It therefore means that it was Johann Georg born in 1834, and so 20 years of age before “Victoria” sailed, who was the George Zimmer on the passenger manifest. He did not seem to be related to any others in the group.
This Johann Georg was a grandson of the carpenter Peter Zimmer, a son of Wencel, and so was a third cousin to the Johannes Zimmer who arrived in 1857 on “Star of the East”. Johann Georg had two sisters and a brother, Jakob, but there are no records of any of these siblings in Victoria.
“Victoria” arrived in Port Phillip on 21 Nov 1854; nothing is known of the time that George spent in the colony and his name does not appear in any of the Victorian statistical records. By 1862 he was back in Nieder-Weisel; on 20th July of that year he married Maria Elisabetha Schimpf, a daughter of a local farmhand Johannes Schimpf III and Susanna nee Haub, born on Christmas Eve in 1838. They settled in a house in Weisgang next to the home of Johann Georg’s father, ‘Peters Lipse’ Konrad.