Konrad Georg JUNG 1819-1896
The earliest forebear identified in the pedigree of Konrad Jung V born 22nd February 1819, was Cartwright Nikolaus Jung, but Konrad’s immediate progenitors made their living from tailoring. However, Konrad lost his father when he was only 17 so he was not able to carry the business on.
Konrad was a good musician and, after serving the requisite time in the army, he married his sweetheart, Anna Elisabetha Bill, a daughter of Konrad Bill X. Soon after the marriage, on 13th February 1842, he took his bride to England where he was able to earn a reasonable living playing with a band. His wife presented him with a son on 19th April 1843 when they were living in Gateshead, Durham; they named him Konrad. A second son, Christoph, was born on 28th July 1845, after which the couple went north to Scotland. There, in Glasgow in 1849, Anna Elisabetha gave birth to a third son, Jakob. This birth had complications and Konrad took his family back to Nieder-Weisel; however, his wife died on 1st December 1850. As was customary, Konrad quickly remarried; his second wife was from the neighbouring village of Hausen, Anna Margaretha Klos. The marriage was celebrated in Nieder-Weisel parish on 14th March 1852 and the couple lived in the village.
A daughter born in 1853 did not survive; a second girl arrived on 28th January 1855 and was named Katharina. When the child was old enough to travel, the family left the village to immigrate to Australia. Konrad, Anna Margaretha, Konrad junior, Jakob and Katharina sailed out of Liverpool aboard the sailing ship “Mermaid”. The fact that these were the only foreigners on the manifest suggests that Konrad had signed on as the musician for the trip to offset his travelling costs – he was able to communicate fluently in English as a result of his years spent in England and Scotland. Leaving England on 22nd July 1856, they reached Melbourne on 19th October.
Other previous arrivals, amongst them members of the Hildebrand and Reuss families, had gone to the alluvial goldfields around Beechworth in northern Victoria and Konrad decided to do the same. He settled his family in this town and went prospecting in the hills and along the valleys of the creeks and rivers. Anna Margaretha gave birth to five children during the next ten years, three boys and two girls. In their new environment they did not forget their old customs and Konrad’s son Conrad was sent back to Melbourne to be confirmed in the Lutheran Church there in April 1859.
Konrad’s brother and sister, Anna Elisabetha and Christoph, who had also been in England and Scotland, had migrated to Victoria in 1854 and 1855 respectively. Konrad’s and Christoph’s families spent several years in contact with one another till 1861 when Christoph returned to Germany. Konrad’s two older sons went off to make their own way in life, but the others remained around Beechworth and Konrad saw some of his grand-children beginning their lives. He died in Beechworth hospital in 1896.
Anna Margaretha lived for a further eleven years; she was buried with her husband in the Beechworth cemetery. Some of their descendants, still living in or near Beechworth, made contact in 1996 after a gap of 135 years with descendants of Elisabetha and Christoph, who had finally made their home in San Francisco.
View Konrad's Family Chart
