Anna Margaretha HAUSER 1840-?
Among the thirty emigrants from Nieder-Weisel who were aboard “Glenmanna” when she got to Melbourne on 27th February 1856, twelve weeks out of Liverpool, was the child ‘Ann Heuser’. The only Hauser child born between 1837 and 1844 and baptised Anna who is not otherwise accounted for is Anna Margaretha, a daughter of Johann Jakob Hauser XII and his wife, Maria Elisabetha nee Bill.
Anna Margaretha was born on 11th October 1840 while her father was in England, where he tried to earn his livelihood as a musician with one of the travelling bands who moved from town to town in northern England and southern Scotland. His wife had gone with him after their marriage in January 1837 but returned to the village to have their daughter.
Five other children, including three girls, would be born during the next 12 years. The gap between some of the births suggests that Johann Jakob was in England periodically. During the time he spent in Nieder-Weisel he could find employment only as a casual farm labourer.
By 1854 many of the villagers had decided to take their chances on the goldfields of Victoria and a travel agent made arrangements for the group that would sail on “Glenmanna”. Like many others, Johann Jakob and his wife were concerned about the moral dangers facing their teenage daughters in Nieder-Weisel and they arranged for Anna Margaretha, who was then fourteen, to go with this party. Booked on the same ticket were five other children, with three adults as chaperones; the children included Konrad Adami – who was actually 16 years old, the second son of Jakob Adami and Katharina nee Haub.
Neither Anna Margaretha nor Konrad Adami left any record of the time they spent in Victoria, but on 3rd March 1861 the couple was married in the parish church in Nieder-Weisel so it can be deduced that they returned home together after a few years in the colony. After their marriage they migrated to North America; they settled in San Francisco and raised their family there.