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Tczew Families than Emirated to New Zealand: 1875

: 19 sty 2012, o 05:36
autor: hayden_sydney
Hi Everyone

I have a transcript of the people and families that came out on a ship from Hamburg to Wellington, New Zealand in 1875. The ship was called the "Shakespeare" and left Hamburg on 6 October 1875, and arrived in Wellington in early 1876.

It appears that 40+ people from the Tczew area emigrated to New Zealand. I thought I would post this here so there is a record for my new Tczew friends

Does anyone know why so many people would have left the small area around Tczew? It seems like a very big number of the population leaving to go to New Zealand!

From Lubiszewo Tczewskie:

SANGER
Johann
Josephine
Marianne

WODOWSKY
Anton
Justina
Anna
Marianne
Pauline

BIELKE
Valentin
Veronica
Francisca
Franz
Valentin

ZYGLEWSKY
Friedrich
Anna

FISAL
Peter

SZERODROWSKY
Joseph
Maria
Agnes
Rosa
Anton
Juliane

KRAKOWSKI
Michael
Franzisca
Johannes

From Tczew:

HUBNER
August
Anna
Georg
Emil
Johann
Mathilde

KULSCH
Carl August
Mathilde

From Rukosin:

OSSOWSKI
Martin
Anna
Bertha
Juliane
Rosalie
Johannes
Franz

STACHURSKI
Josef
Anna
Maria
Josef

I have names and ages of all the people that left also. Am happy to be contacted by private message if you want this information.

Thanks

Hayden

Re: Tczew Families than Emirated to New Zealand: 1875

: 19 sty 2012, o 10:39
autor: hayden_sydney
Were there financial difficulties in Prussia at the time, or was there war that would make that many people leave?

Re: Tczew Families than Emirated to New Zealand: 1875

: 19 sty 2012, o 22:17
autor: be-good
hayden_sydney pisze:Were there financial difficulties in Prussia at the time, or was there war that would make that many people leave?
As usual, there are no quick or simple answers to such questions, but I will try to give you some brief insight into the matter.

IMHO the main explanation for this wave of the emigration to the furthest possible destination (N.Z. is virtually located on Europe's antipodes) was the development of means of transport available for European population. Our region at the time was safe from wars (we, previously a Polish province, had been incorporated into Prussia for 100 years and didn't have wars HERE), but living conditions of rural population were truly poor. New railway connections with great Prussian ports made it possible for simple folk to organise attempts to find a better place to live.

To make it clear how hard it must have been - reaching Hamburg from here took them a day (then); getting from Hamburg to New Zealand took them 2-3 MONTHS(!)...

At the website run by POHOS - an organisation of people of Polish origin in N.Z. there used to be a lovely list of hundreds of people who emigrated from our area to N.Z. in 1870s, but the site is out of reach at the moment for some reason... :help Please, pay attention to the fact that most of the surnames quoted by you are typically Polish (although often misspelt :) ), just like yours.

There may have been an immigration support scheme run by the British Crown at the time as well, I will try to find out some info on it.

Rgds.

Re: Tczew Families than Emirated to New Zealand: 1875

: 20 sty 2012, o 01:17
autor: hayden_sydney
Hi be-good,

Thanks for your reply. I am very interested in why a group of people from the same group of villages decided to move: were they angry, and after a town meeting decided to all uproot from their homeland? It seems very odd that so many people would leave, particularly in the Lubiszewo area where the population leaving may have been around 10% of the total?

I am curious also if such a big move of people was documented in local Lubiszewo/Tczew history: presumably the government at the time would have noticed such a big group of people leaving (which would have impacts to the local economy and labour shortage perhaps?).

Is there a Library somewhere in Tczew that holds historical books, newspapers or documents that might have some clues on the way the local people were feeling about so many of their countrymen leaving their town? It's very interesting and I would love to learn more.

:)

Re: Tczew Families than Emirated to New Zealand: 1875

: 20 sty 2012, o 07:22
autor: be-good
A quick quote which I have just found presents two new circumstances which may explain a lot here (locations mentioned here are in the direct vicinity of our town). :

"...Apparently in Poland they had small farms and supplemented their incomes by working for a German called Wurtz/Wircca/Werker who owned two adjoining villages. When the Franco-Prussion War started in 1870 Wu'rtz gave all adult males from Kokoszki/Kokoschken a choice - either be drafted into the German Army or work for him to produce food for the Army. They chose to work for him the condition being they had to leave the title deeds of their land to him while the war was going on. When the war finished and they requested their deeds back he would not return the deeds and they lost their plots of land, homes, and their livelihood. There are different versions of this tale either way whatever happened several families left Kokoschken for NZ at the same time: Alfuth, Brzoska, Drzewicki (Dravitski), Fabich/Fabisz/Fabish, Jakubowski, Kowalewski, Kuklinski, Labowski, Lewandowski, Meller, Prus, Rogucki, Rzaska, Tzoska, Treder and Turczyk."


"During this period of the Franco/Prussian War life for Poles under the Prussian/German rule was difficult. Polish towns and were renamed and given Germanic forms. Their own Polish language was forbidden and their Polish schools closed. They disliked the Germans and may not have allowed their children to attend the schools and so most were illiterate upon arrival in New Zealand consequently first names and surnames were often spelt incorrectly both in Poland and in New Zealand . They were also forced to join the German army where they would end up fighting and killing their own people. In 1870 to 1871 the Franco-Prussian Wars occurred. Rumours were spreading throughout Europe about a new colony, New Zealand , and that there was plenty of land and work. Emigrants were needed for the settlement of this land. The Prussian Government prohibited men aged between 18 and 28 years from emigrating. Whole families could sometimes leave if the son had not enrolled for the compulsory conscription by the age of 21. Canada and USA were more generous giving small plots of land. NZ offered assisted passage to attract people to NZ around 1874 and 1876 and at this time Pomeranians, Prussians or Germans (names used to describe Poles) saw it as an opportunity to build a new life. A chance to escape the Germans but when they got to NZ they were referred to as Germans or Aliens. There were at least 10 voyages in this scheme. Most people emigrating went to the United States before 1873. After 1873 there was a major financial crisis in the USA which forced many earlier immigrants to try to return if they could afford it to their homelands. Around 1874 New Zealand established an immigration scheme to develop road, rail, telegraph and the land".

"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" .


Source: http://www.thekivellfamily.co.nz/butler ... y_p10.html