Christoph REUSS 1831-?
Christoph was the fourth son of Johann Jakob Reuss and Anna Margaretha nee Hildebrand; all four boys would leave the village of Nieder-Weisel for life in the New World. Their only sister died when she was four days short of her third birthday, but a girl and a boy from their mother’s earlier marriage to Nikolaus Schimpf placed an extra financial strain on their father’s limited earnings as a farmhand.
Born on 18th December 1831, Christoph was among the 1845 group of boys and girls presented for their first communion on Whitmonday. The fact that his older brothers, Johann Georg and Henrich, were not with the 1836 and 1842 communion classes suggests that Johann Jakob may have gone to England to look for better working conditions. The eldest brother was certainly there in the 184Os so it is likely that only Christoph of the siblings went back when the parents returned to Nieder-Weisel.
On 2Oth June 1854 the Dutch vessel “Johanna Maria” reached Sydney from Liverpool. A crew member was C Reus; this may have been Christoph. His age is unclear – either 2O or 3O. His nationality shows as Dutch, which may have been a corruption of the German “Deutsch”.
Henrich Reuss was in Sydney by 1856 – possibly as early as 1853. A small group of young men from and neighbouring Butzbach went out to Sydney in 1854 – Christoph and Henrich might have been in that group. Henrich was married in Sydney in 1857, and went to the diggings at Spring Creek in northern Victoria in 1858, joining his brother Johann Georg there.
Christoph was in Sydney, employed as a tailor, in about 188O according to the letter from Ambrosius Klippel to Philipp Hauser written in 1886. He had married Mary Ann Nicholls in 1872. Five children were born during the next 16 years: Christopher (1872-1947); Margaret (1878-1891); Matilda (1881-?); Catherine (1884-1885) and Reinhardt (1888-?). Catherine died on 22nd March 1885 when the family was living at No.4 Potts Building, off Bathurst Street in central Sydney – probably behind the shop that Christoph worked in; the other children survived.
Christoph and Mary spent the remainder of their lives in NSW, and have many descendants in the Sydney area and central NSW (Dubbo) – Judith Lyon (refer Contacts) has full details.
View Christoph's Family Chart
