History Notes - when the Schmidt family came to Barraba

23rd November 2022

History Notes

The Historical Society is having a busy week this week with Kim coming back to continue with the Collection Policy for the museum on Tuesday and a visitor on Thursday afternoon and then the markets on Saturday.  There are also plans for a Christmas “get together” in December so members stay in touch for details.

This week while the S to Z file is out of the cupboard, I will concentrate on The Schmidt family.  They also migrated to Australia in the 1840s but their German name caused some difficulty and most changed their name to Smith.

Andrew Schmidt, son of Phillip Schmidt, was born circa 1818 near Berlin in what was then known as Prussia.  He grew up with his family and in 1841 he married, Sophia, daughter of John Schroder.

The young couple went on to have four children, Eliza, John Henry, Caroline, and Minnie in the next ten years before deciding to migrate to Australia in 1854.  They sailed from Hamburg, Germany on the “Singapore” on the 9th August, 1854 and landed in Sydney at Port Jackson just before Christmas.

The family soon moved on from Sydney, travelling by sea to Maitland and then by dray to Murrurundi and over the range to Goonoo Goonoo where Andrew took the job of shepherd for the next decade.  There was also another Schmidt – Frederick – working as a shepherd there at the same time but it is not known if he was a brother or cousin of Andrew.

While at Goonoo Goonoo, Andrew and Sophia had their fifth child, Charles, in 1858.  The older children were growing up and in 1861 eldest daughter, Eliza, at the age of 16 years married Carl Steiger at Tamworth.  They settled at Glenda, near Barraba and raised a large family there.

The next two girls married in Manilla – Caroline married William Edward Garske in 1872 and Minnie married Frederick Schmidt in 1874.  The two boys married in 1884 – John married Mary Ann Ivers at Mr Steiger’s house and Charles married Mary Simshauser in Tamworth.

Andrew became an Australian citizen in February, 1863, and at that stage was still a shepherd at Goonoo Goonoo.  It is likely that he came to the Barraba district to be near his family after he retired.  He died at “Glenda” in 1889 and his wife also died at “Glenda” six years later.  They are both buried in the Barraba Cemetery.

There are obviously a lot of family descendants spread around Barraba and the wider countryside in 2022.

News for November 2022