Konrad KRAUSGRILL 1828-1870
Philipp Krausgrill and Anna Margaretha Jost had a family of four boys and one girl, but only two of the boys survived. Philipp died a year after the birth of his daughter and his widow remarried the next year. (Anna Margaretha had seven children in her second marriage to Johannes Wilhelm).
The eldest son Wenzel chose not to leave Nieder-Weisel when the mass emigration developed but his younger brother Konrad and their sister, Susanna, who had married Christoph Adami, joined those who had decided to immigrate to Victoria. They sailed from Liverpool on board “Mindoro” with ten others from the village, reaching Port Phillip on 14th July 1856 after twelve weeks at sea.
Konrad had trained as a maker of band instruments, but he first joined the others as they prospected around Ballarat and later on the rich Castlemaine fields. It was here that he met Jane Herd, the 24 year-old daughter of James Herd and Sarah Clarke. Until his death, James was a Government Messenger and Jane was one of the first white children born in the Loddon region. She and Konrad were married in the Castlemaine Registry Office on 2nd November 1863.
Their first child was born in mid-1864 at Forest Creek; he was named Conrad John. Jane gave birth to a second son, Frederick James, in Maldon (west of Castlemaine) in 1866. The family then moved to Daylesford, where they settled. Konrad was a very good musician and his services were in demand at dances and other functions. A third son, Charles, was born in 1868, and a daughter, Ann Elizabeth, in January 1870. The pleasure that would normally have heralded this event was totally eclipsed by the failing of Konrad’s health. The diagnosis was the so-called miner’s disease, tuberculosis, and, only two weeks after first holding his baby girl, Konrad died from this dreaded complaint on 13th March 1870. He was buried two days later in Daylesford cemetery, three days before his 42nd birthday. A copy of his death certificate was entered in the Nieder-Weisel records in 1872, taken back perhaps by his sister Susanna.
In 1879, Jane had an illegitimate daughter, whom she named Minnie Krausgrill. Jane married again in 1882 and died four years later aged 46. Two of Konrad’s sons married and carried his name into a further generation.
View Konrad's Family Chart
