rgrosser/family 

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the australian grosser saga

The first Grosser to arrive in Australia in late 1841 was Karl Albert Herman Grosser (KAHG) and Anna Rosina Wogish (ARW) with their six children (Amelia Rosalie Grosser, Karl August Grosser, Hermann Eduard Grosser, Eduard Ludwig Grosser, Traugott Grosser and Maria Magdolina Grosser) , from the city of Grunberg (a.k.a. Gruenberg), Silesia (This city is now known as Zielona Gora, Poland. The major grape-growing region located near the Odra River, also accessible on the train-line, between the cities of Berlin, Germany and Warsaw, Poland.)

The family departed on the Skjold a Danish ship, which departed from the port of Hamburg, on June 30th, 1841. They fled from religious persecution, as impoverished Lutherans from the the Prussian King Frederick William III (FW III), who advocated by force, the imperial control of religious observance.

Their seventh child, a girl, Salome Maria Grosser, was born in-transit , on the ship. On the 17th April, 1844 at Bethany, South Australia, the eight child , Benjamin Dienegott Leberecht Grosser, [1st generation] was born. He was our family's great-grandfather and was the only original KAHG family member to be born in Australia. It is recorded that there were two waves of German immigration to South Australia, fleeing from religious intolerance, in apparently, small flotillas across the Atlantic. Some families emigrated to the young, and prospering now-independent USA, (which KAHG had applied for on Sept. 10th 1838, in Liegnitz) but whilst other families perservered, for the long journey to Australia (which was applied for by KAHG on March 20th, 1841), where there was surely freedom, but under the protection of a congenial and protective British monarchy.

A major influence to the stability of Europe in 1840, came with the marriage of Queen Victoria to her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who greatly influenced and ultimately transformed her British court. It is most probable, this British & German hegemony was conducive to the German immigrant families, who placed their utmost faith in God, to deliver them from their oppression, in the hardship of making their new land at Angas Park, fruitful. This firm faith in the monarchy, plus the death of the despot FW III, in 1840 giving rise to the son, Frederick William IV, an unknown king, may have been the incentive to leave in a period of political and religious instability. KAHG was one of the original pioneers and the mayor of the first settlement in the Barossa Valley District and his wife ARW was by descent, a princess of the ancient Wendish, or a.k.a. the Vindish people, who were a Slavic group that dispersed into small enclaves, throughout Europe from eastern Germany to the Balkans.

In late 1998, there were about 770 Grossers in the USA, with a much smaller number in Australia. Tracing of the name Grosser, in Silesia is extremely difficult, as all Lutherans who were born during the reign of FW III, were denied the rights of citizenship. This included registration of births and deaths. These were registered only by the Church, where they were performed. The destruction of Churches during the internal civil wars, that followed the downfall of the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty and the dissolution of the Hapsburg's Austro-Hungarian Empire, also destroyed the records of the linked connections between families.

There are now forums for requesting genealogical information about Silesian families that are hosted on a variety of services (German & International, German Academic, US and Australian), which provide links to some sources of information on German immigrant families. There are some extensive genealogy forums, of which http://genforum.familytreemaker.com/poland/ is one special service that can assist families of German descent, where their cities of origin, are now in Polish territories.

Our family's grandfather was an Emil August Grosser, who by trade was a wheel-wright, fashioning coachwheels and in his retirement, gained national recognition for breeding award-winning pidgeons, and our grandmother,  Florence Grosser, [2nd generation] who worked in her youth, as an inn-keeper, were from Thebarton, in South Australia.

Our immediate family of Max & Gwenda Grosser [3rd generation], left South Australia (SA) in 1962 to move to New South Wales (NSW), where since the children [4th generation], have dispersed to Victoria (VIC) and Queensland (QLD), & one to New Zealand (NZ).

Sources:

The Grossers, Roy Grosser , South Australia     ISBN:

The Grossers from Gruenberg,     ISBN:

L.M. Grosser, "Xmas Letters", [email] 27/12/98

L.M. Grosser, "Reply to your 14th", [email] 14/1/99

* (pararphrased) They arrived by barge from Grunberg, to Hamburg on May 22nd, 1841. Had their official travel documents issued, and then had to live on the barges till the 'Skjold' was finished repairs, on June 30th, 1841.

The State Library of South Australia.

The British Monarchy.