Biography of Frederick Wilhelm Koberstein of New Zealand
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Biography of Frederick Wilhelm Koberstein of New Zealand The beginning starting from the end: Frederick Wilhelm Sr. died January 21 1912 at Rongotea, New Zealand at the age of 94. Here is his obituary from the newspaper, “Feilding Star” Volume VI, Issue 1700, 22 January 1912. This serves a good record to survey this first family and their locations at his death. It says he arrived in this district in 1876, the same year of their immigration. One can surmise from this that they had arrangements made in advance to come to this area. The obituary says he was a good citizen, had the respect of all his neighbours and had a strong constitution. This document indicates he had five sons and one daughter. Now, we have to make a correlation between the names given here and those above. The daughter, Emily, is obviously the now married Mrs. C. Hartley living at Wellington. Here are the five sons: 1. William now living at Colyton (Manawatu district). This must be Frederick Wilhelm Jr. called William to distinguish him from his father who was often referred to as F.W. in the Feilding Star newspaper. 2. Amco of Patea (South Taranaki district of Taranaki region). It is unclear which of the remaining three this is. 3. Carl of Queensland (The only Queensland apparent on modern maps is near Sydney Australia. This name must be for a town no longer known by that name. It is unclear which of the remaining three this is. 4. Fred of Wellington (Wellington region). This would obviously be Ferdinand. 5. Watta of Shannon (Horowhenua district of Manawatu-Wanganui). It is unclear which of the remaining three this is. I am only aware of one picture from this group and that is Frederick Wilhelm Koberstein Jr. referred to as “William” above. The only other photo is of his son George Albert Koberstein. Frederick Wilhelm Koberstein Sr. was born on 1827 in Prussia to William and Johana nee Knospe Koberstein. He married Louise Peshke in 1847 in Prussia also. They had six children, five boys and one girl. They were all born in Prussia. Alwine (about 1853), Frederick Wilhelm Jr. (1860 in Guben), Ferdinand (1866 in Ischberg), Emilie (1867), Robert Otto Ludvig (1867) and Emil Paul (1871). They immigrated to New Zealand aboard the “Fritz Reuter” departing Hamburg April 11, 1876. Homeland Searching on Ancestry.com for All New Zealand, Naturalizations, 1843-1981 results for Koberstein we get 14 records. If we cross reference these with the known Family of Frederick Wilhelm Sr. we get a more detailed picture. Two of the 14 records are duplicates, leaving 12. Name cBirth Location Nat. Date Age Residence occupation Frederick Wilhelm 1816 Prussia 29Aug1887 71 Campbelltown Farmer Sr. (1) Louise Peshke 1847 Prussia - - - Amel (1)(2) 1872 Prussia 27Mar1907 25 Rongotea Butcher Frederick Wilhelm 1860 undoubtedly - - - Jr. Prussia Ferdinand (1)(4) 1866 Ischberg, 15Nov1899 23 West Waitapu, Settler Prussia Hunterville Emilie 1867 Prussia - - - Otto (3) 1867 undoubtedly 18Oct1899 32 Ohingaiti, Settler Prussia Wanganui Emil Paul 1871 Prussia 27Mar1897 26 Rogotea Not in Frederick Wilhelm immigration family (Assume children of brother of F.W. Sr. for now) Carl Fredrich Abt.18 undoubtedly 11Nov1905 Halcombe Farmer Reinhold 53 Prussia Richard Paul Emil 1879 undoubtedly 22Jul1903 Feilding Farmer Prussia Gustav 1857 undoubtedly 23Dec1924 Palmerston Settler Prussia North Tony 1897 Yugoslavian 22Sep1938 Franklin Junction Shoe repair (1) two entries in the naturalization records (2) Amel in naturalization records appears to be Alwine in my records (3) Ludwig Robert Otto in my records (4) Also Fred in some records Here is an reference to Richard Paul Emil (R.P.) receiving his letter of naturalization. Feilding Star, Volume XXV, Issue 42 4 August 1903 Local and General News ... Letters of naturalizations have been issued by Colonial Secretary to R.P. Koberstein and John Mandall, both of Feilding. ... Gustav and Karl Koberstein emigrated to New Zealand several years after Wilhelm and his family, they came from the Guben area as did Wilhelm, but due to military service were unable to leave Germany at the same time as Wilhelm and were probably younger than Wilhelm. Gustav was known to have a wooden leg as a consequence of having his leg shot off in the Franco-Prussian War whilst serving in the Prussian Army. What their relationship was with Wilhelm is unclear but they were apparently closely related. Karl had decendants living in New Zealand up until at least the late 1970`s. K(C)arl immigrated from Crosten (probably Crossen, Brandenburg, Prussia) which is now Krosno Odrzanskie, Poland (Not far from Guben) per immigartion records to New Zealand. At about the same time Gustav immigrated also. The immigrant family of Frederick Wilhelm Koberstein Sr. is also found in the Hamburg passenger lists. Here is a tabulation of the family. Name: Wilhelm Koberstein Gender: männlich (Male) Departure Age: 49 Occupation: Arbeiter Birth Date: abt 1827 Residence: Guben, Preußen (Germany) Departure Date: 12 Apr 1876 Port of Departure: Hamburg Port of Arrival: Neu Seeland Ship Name: Fritz Reuter Captain: Peyn Shipping Clerk: C. A. Mathei Shipping line: Rob. M. Sloman & Co. Ship Type: Segelschiff Ship Flag: Deutschland Accommodation: ohne Angabe Volume: 373-7 I, VIII A 1 Band 033 A Household Members: Name Age (calculated birth date) Wilhelm Koberstein 49 (1827) Louise Koberstein 45 (1831) Alwine Koberstein 23 (1853) Wilhelm Koberstein 16 (1860) Emilie Koberstein 14 (1862) Ferdinand Koberstein 9 Jahre 9 Monate (July 1866) Otto Koberstein 8 Jahre 9 Monate (July 1867) Emil Koberstein 5 (1871) Here is the image for this: I also found an interesting story about another family that appeared to arrive on the same ship same date: The family name of FABICH originated from the small town of Pomeranian, KOKOSZKI, in Poland. On arrival of migrants to New Zealand the surname was changed to FABISH There was a sudden end to assisted immigration in 1876 (the year the *FABICH/FABISH family arrived), which was terrible for all emigrants who NZ had accepted - as they had sold their possessions and given the required three months’ notice to employers. *Because most were illiterate the spelling of names can vary. The Prussian Government forced the shipping companies to send these emigrants to New Zealand anyway. Some families thought they were going to America to join their relations but ended up in New Zealand. On board the Fritz Reuter the sleeping quarters were like coffins placed one on top of the other with an open end into which the sleeper wriggled feet first with one's head in the open space. Imagine the discomfort they endured crowded into such a small space and no such thing as sea sickness tablets. I would die after a couple of days. This voyage to NZ took 110 days with no fresh vegetables, fruit, bread, milk or meat. I am sure the resourceful Polish caught fresh fish. Overcrowded and poorly ventilated living cubicles resulted in illnesses like measles, smallpox, and scarlet fever, diarrhea, etc. Children and babies often became ill and died on these voyages. There were about 516 passengers on this second voyage to NZ of the Fritz Reuter. The Fritz Reuter sailed into Wellington on 4 August 1876. Simon FABICH, his brother, sister, niece and many other families from Kokoschken, Pomerania , Poland (now called Kokoszkowy), were on the Fritz Reuter. Augustin FISCHER and his daughter Maria Anna from Switzerland , Gabriel Mathias DODUNSKI & his family from Gremblin , Poland were also aboard. The German Empires Consul in Wellington was Frederick August Krull and he had to beg for assistance from the NZ Government, to feed and accommodate all the people. Very unwillingly the NZ Minister of Immigration allowed some people to use the immigration barracks and provided a few days rations. The Koberstein family had been living in Guben, Prussia. In the late 19th century it had a population around 10,000. Here is a modern map of this location. The article above indicates that the Koberstein family on the ship Fritz Reuter arrived at Wellington (the Hamburg passenger lists states it as Neu Seeland, but that is a phonetic spelling for New Zealand). The location they ended in was around Feilding which is about 160 Km north of Wellington. Newspapers write our story We are fortunate that the newspaper archive for the “Feilding Star” has been digitized and indexed and provides an excellent insight into the day to day life of this family. The time covered starts January 1, 1882 (about 5 years after their arrival) and continues to January 1, 1920. Children in the News One common entry in this newspaper was the results of school examinations and events. This will serve to elucidate the names of the son’s and probably grandchildren. First we need this document that gives typical ages for various education levels/classes. Five articles have been found giving the names (often just the initial) of the children and the grade they are in, e.g. Primer 1-4 or Standard 1-6, however Form 1-7 never shows up. I assume this is various classifications for Elementary, Middle, and High School. Here is the data and calculated approximate birth years. Calc. Aug Sep Sep Sep Aug Sep Mar Dec Father Birth Yr 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1903 1904 1905 1906 1906 Rudolph s2* s5 1889 8 to 9 11 to 12 Frederich Wilhelm Jr. Alvina s1 s3 s4 s5 1891 7 to 8 7 to 8 10 to 11 11 to 12 Frederich Wilhelm Jr. Otto s3 s4 s4 1892 7 to 8 10 to 11 10 to 11 Frederich Wilhelm Jr. George s2 1893 8 to 9 Frederich Wilhelm Jr.