Anna Margaretha (1848-?)

Anna Margaretha HAUSER 1848-?

Anna Margaretha was the first of two children who were born to the postillion Jakob Hauser IV by his wife, Elisabetha Margaretha nee Ziegler, from the village of Steinfurth, four km south-east of Nieder-Weisel. Although Jakob was born in the village he worked mainly in the nearby town of Butzbach. The couple met when Elisabetha moved to Nieder-Weisel looking for employment. They formed an attachment and were married on 28th November 1847. Anna Margaretha was born on 6th January 1848 and baptised 3 days later, sponsored by Anna Margaretha Fett. A baby brother arrived on 18th February 1850 but he died on 28th August – the day after their father’s death. Jakob and his son were buried together in the new cemetery on 1st September 1850.

Elisabetha supported her daughter by working as a domestic. This brought her in contact with Jakob Hildebrand, a tailor in the village, who had been left with three young children when his wife died in 1855. Elisabetha agreed to migrate to Victoria with Jakob and the pair left with Anna Margaretha and the Hildebrand children in time to take their passage on the re-named vessel “Greyhound”, which sailed out of Liverpool on 14th May 1857. With them were Elisabetha’s brother, Gotthard Ziegler, with his wife Elisabetha.

Nine-year-old Anna Margaretha had fourteen weeks to enjoy the sea voyage, and to get to know her new friends. Their journey ended at Melbourne on 26th August and Jakob arranged accommodation for the group there, rather than go onto the diggings, because Elisabetha was pregnant. The couple were married on 7th October and Margaretha’s half-sister Catherine was born in December in their Sandridge home. In 1861 Jakob became naturalised and he set up as a fuel merchant at 125 Exploration Lane, on the northern boundary of the city of Melbourne.

Four more children were born into the family, but the only girl among them died in infancy. Each of the parents had a drinking problem, and this made life extremely unpleasant at times for the children. In 1862, Anna Margaretha’s stepsister Elisabetha was married in Castlemaine to Richard Davis; the couple took their family to New Zealand in about 1870. Gotthard Ziegler had died in 1862 but some of the Ziegler in-laws also went to New Zealand.

Anna Margaretha, with her half-sister Anna Katharina Hildebrand, left for Otago and Hokitika on the west coast of the south island on 5th November 1866. In about 1870 Anna Margaretha married Julius Kelpe, by whom she had three children. One of her sons, Albert born 1872, came to Australia. He married Evelyn Amanda Chapman in 1900 and they had at least two children in their Carlton home.