Konrad HAUB 1831-1910
Konrad was an illegitimate son of Anna Elisabetha Haub, a daughter of the oil-miller Johann Georg Haub V and Katharina Hauser (whose father Peter Hauser was also an oil-miller). When Anna Elisabetha and her brother Konrad, as sponsor, presented the boy for baptism during a prayer hour on the Wednesday following the birth, they provided no information about the father of the child. They attested only that the baby had been born on 27th January.
Although Anna Elisabetha later married twice, her illegitimate son continued to carry her name, and in 1845 was confirmed as Konrad Haub, so there is no way of establishing his direct parentage.
In these circumstances, it is not surprising that Konrad chose to leave the village when the chance presented itself. On his application for Letters of Naturalisation in 1901, Konrad claimed to have reached Melbourne on the vessel “Glen Mona” on 15th January 1856; this may have been “Glenmanna”; she got to Victoria with a large group from Nieder-Weisel on 14th February 1855. Konrad was liable for service in the army at about this time and he may have been concealing his identity, as others had done. The other possibility is that he was aboard the “Marco Polo” when it reached Melbourne on 27th February 1856. A number of villagers travelled on this vessel, and some of them, including the Klippels and Mullers, went to the goldfields around Yackandandah.
It was in this town that Konrad, by then aged 34, eventually found a partner – Margaret Gooley, the 25 year old daughter of Miles Gooley and his wife Honora Reardon of Tipperary. Konrad and Margaret were married on 20th February 1865 in the Roman Catholic Church at Rowdy Flats, where Konrad was living. Margaret gave birth to a daughter, Ann Elizabeth, in 1865; then there was a wait of almost twelve years before a second child arrived. Both parents were pleased that this was a brother for Ann, and they gave him the name Charles Conrad.
Konrad continued prospecting around the creek and river beds in the area till he was about 50 years of age and then he tried his hand at farming. Ann Elizabeth married William Land Roper in 1889, and Charles Conrad, who was a carrier in Whisky Flat, married Lilian Hocking. Charles and Lilian had a child but it did not survive so the Haub name did pass into the next generation.
Konrad lived for nine years after becoming a citizen of his adopted country. He died of uraemia in his Whisky Flat home in his 80th year, and was buried in the Yackandandah cemetery on 18 Oct 1910. His wife lived only ten months longer and the children marked their common resting place with a suitable memorial, which is still carefully maintained.
(Konrad’s mother’s brother, Heinrich Haub born 1813, brought his family to Victoria in 1858 but later returned to the village. It is not known if the two met in Victoria).