174 year's family anniversary at St. Paul's

Today we celebrated the 174th Anniversary of the arrival of the Gallasch Family in Australia. All of the Australian Gallasch family is descended from Johann Joseph Gallasch. He and his first wife Veronika and their children left their hometown of Zbaszyn (was then in Prussia, now in Poland), in 1838.

After a difficult 4 month's journey on the sailing ship the "Catharina", they arrived at Port Misery (near Port Adelaide) South Australia on 22 January 1839. They settled at Hahndorf and then Verdun in the Adelaide Hills. Today was the date chosen to celebrate that arrival 174 years ago.

It was Pastor Kavel who looked for a destination to lead his congregation to in an exodus from Prussia. Fortunately for us he chose South Australia. The main reason for the migration was religious persecution. The Prussian Kaiser, Friedrich Wilhelm III, had little time for these Lutherans within his realm, wanting them to become members of his own blended version of Reformed-Lutheran.

After the emigration, the family settled as a group with the other passengers from the "Catharina", who were all predominantly Lutheran, with many of them being related families. Not surprisingly they chose Lutheran worship in the German language, and soon joined the Hahndorf Lutherans under the pastorship of August Kavel.

St Paul's even bigger.

The Gallasch family started out at St Michael's Lutheran Church in Hahndorf with St Michael's being the oldest Lutheran church in Australia to still have a worshipping congregation on its original church site. It was founded in 1839, soon after the immigrants arrived.

St Paul's Lutheran Church in Hahndorf was built in 1840 (and consecrated in 1846), as a result of a schism between Pastor Kavel who was part of the greater Gallasch group, and Pastor Fritzsche who remained at St. Michael's.

St. Paul's Lutheran Church is where we had our gathering today in the modern church hall. To celebrate the reunion, a revised version of the Gallasch Family Tree book was launched, featuring an updated list of all of the 4000 known descendants, now into the 10th generation. Paladian was one of the proof readers of the book for the Gallasch Reunion Committee.

Most but not all the Gallasch clan remained in South Australia. Various major moves have occurred, with some moving to Western Australia, Victoria, and one branch re-located to the Unites States of America. However all of these are still descendants of J.J. (as we call JJ Gallasch today), and so they are still part of our greater Australian Gallasches!

As an interesting side note, I met with a member of our Gallasch family in USA last year when I caught up with my distant cousin Josh Cortopassi in LA. Actually it was Josh who tracked me down via the internet and helped set up the meeting. His mother is descended from the female side of the Gallasch family.

I also blipped the headstone for my great grandmother, Johanna Ernestine Gallasch, on December 22nd last year.