Johann Konrad HAUSER 1825-?
On Friday, 13th July 1856, a child of Johann Konrad Hauser and Elisabetha nee Henkel (who was born in Wilsbach-by-Gladenbach) was presented for baptism to Pastor Fabricius in Nieder-Weisel. The sponsor was the local farmhand Johannes Riegelhuth, from whom the child took the name Johannes. The child was said to have been born aboard an English ship “George Marshal” on 1st June 1856 and was described as the fourth child and second son of this couple (who claimed to have married in Australia but did not produce the marriage certificate). The father, who was present, was a son of Konrad Hauser VIII. The numbering system for names in the village was often erratic, and several Konrad Hausers carried the number VIII at times. It is most likely that the father of Johann Konrad was the one born on 7th September 1792, and married to Christina Reuter in February 1815. Their son Johann Konrad was born on 29th August 1825, the sixth child in a family of eleven; this child was confirmed on Whitmonday in 1839.
There is no record of the marriage of this Johann Konrad in the Nieder-Weisel registers. It must be assumed that he left the village in the mid-184Os and met up with Elisabetha Henkel either en route to Victoria or in England before he sailed. Their liaison must have commenced by about 185O, but it is not likely that they left for Victoria before, say, 1853-54. There is no record in the Victorian BDMs of their marriage nor of the birth of any of the three earlier children. No shipping record of any of the group has been found.
If the parentage suggested is correct then Johann Konrad had a brother Christoph born 1817 who went to England in about 1843 and then to America. His wife died there and he returned to the village to marry her sister and took her to America. He was shown as being out of Germany in the 1866 census. Another brother, Konrad born 182O also went to England and then on to Victoria after his family went back to Nieder-Weisel.