Saturday, May 5, 2012

Leafy - but wet

During the week I went to Eltham and visited Susie and her family.

the old Midland Hotel, oposite the railway station
  I left Castlemaine in brilliant sunshine,

Castlemaine Railway station


but on Wednesday it rained,


 and rained,

 and rained some more.
 
Susie is heaps better, but still not allowed to drive, so we stayed inside, and talked, swapped recipes, and played Scrabble. She beat me, too!

 I took the opportunity to take a photo of this quilt, a bit blurry, but you get the idea...

 and couldn't resist this. Susie is well known for her love of purple, and people give her stuff...

One of the recipes we talked about was Savoury Chops, a Good Thing to make when nights are cold...

Savoury chops
brown 6-8 barbecue lamb chops in a little oil, add a finely sliced onion, then pour over the following mixture, mixed in this order -
1tsp salt, 1 tsp dry mustard, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1/2 cup water.
Simmer until chops are tender, and serve with mashed potato and a green vegetable.

You'll find Worcestershire sauce in the supermarket near the tomato and barbecue sauces. It keeps for years.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

A Gypsy in the family?


Van Gogh


A query from a grand-daughter prompted me to revisit a family legend - that one of our ancestors was a gypsy.
I've always been a bit sceptical about this, but maybe, just maybe, it's true.

 
When I was in Germany some years ago, I visited the village of Bad Grund, because I knew the Niewand family had lived there at some stage. At the Lutheran church of St. Antonius, I was allowed to look through the church registers, with the help of the Social Worker. We found a record in 1719 of the birth of a daughter, Dorothea, to Hennig Heinrich Niewandt and his wife, Gesa Maria. Unusually, no surname was shown for Gesa. The name is unique in the parish records, suggesting that she was in some way foreign..

Later entries record the baptism of three more children (one of them my ancestor). BUT after the first entry, Gesa's name does not appear, a blank space was deliberately left where the mother's name should have been entered. Gesa Maria had somehow offended the pastor, and the deliberate omission of her name suggests some kind of excommunication. There is no record of a marriage between Hennig and Gesa, either, which suggests they may have married elsewhere.

I looked up "Gesa" and it appears to be a Romani word meaning day or days. It's also a female name still in use today, probably of German origin, possibly a variant of Gertrude. 
So it's  possible that Gesa Maria was a Romani, but I really have no proof. How she fell from favour with the Lutheran Church is a mystery, perhaps she did a little fortune-telling among the villagers?

For centuries Romanies were universally disliked, feared, and even persecuted - you can read more about them here.

 They've also been romanticized, as in this photo of a Russian gypsy girl, and their music continues to influence popular music to this day. Django Reinhardt is perhaps the best known Romani musician, but flamenco music also owes much to the Spanish Romani.

 
Gesa Maria was probably born around 1700 (Which would make her 19 when Dorothea was born in 1719). She was my great-great-great-great-great grandmother. Given that I now have great-grandchildren, she has ten generations of descendants, numbering in the hundreds. Not bad for a lady who was persona non grata with the Lutheran pastor back in the 1720s !



Breaking news
My new textile blog is ready! There's a link over in the sidebar (under my picture) It's taken ages to set up- creating a satisfactory header was a headache, cos I'm hopeless with Photoshop, but I've finally got something I like.

My other idea, for a textile gallery, didn't work out, so I'm in the process of creating photo albums on Flickr.
To see what I've done so far, click the Flickr on the sidebar.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

One thing leads to another

I've been thinking that this blog is probably not the most appropriate place to show off my textile creations. It's supposed to be about family history. Ideally, I'd love to have a personal website, and put all my "stuff" on it, but that's way beyond my capabilities.
I decided to start a new blog, just for textile creations.
I made a start on this, but then I thought "what about all those pictures I have of previous projects?" I'd really like to show those to an admiring world...

 So another blog was born (guess that makes me a Serial Blogger)


Setting up a new blog takes time - finding the right template, tweaking it to fit my vision, creating a header... which means I haven't made any tangible work in the past week. But I'm learning new stuff, like how to create a photo mosaic -


isn't that cool?

The new blogs aren't quite ready for viewing yet. I'll let you know when they are.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble

I've been making jam - the fig tree has been loaded (the birds have been having a fine  time) and the quinces are ripening too.
 I often find that people are nervous about jam-making, maybe it's the mental image of a bubbling cauldron, or the idea that it's a mysterious process, akin to following a witches' spell. So I thought I'd put together a Jam-making 101 post for those of you who are a bit nervous.

It's pretty simple actually. You cook the fruit with a little water until it's soft, add sugar, and cook again to reduce the water content, until it reaches 'setting point',  then pour it into jars and seal them. That's it, really.
The equipment is simple too.

A pot - I use a heavy-based medium sized stockpot. The thick base helps to prevent the mixture from burning. (don't be tempted to buy a cheap stockpot - they are useless). You could use any large saucepan, really, as long as it has a heavy base. I also use a heat-diffusing pad under the pot. You can get them at the hardware store. I don't think they are made with asbestos these days :-)
A long-handled wooden spoon for stirring the jam.
Scales to weigh the fruit and sugar are nice, but not essential, you can just measure cup-for-cup.
Clean, dry jars, recycled are good. I don't sterilise them exactly, just wash them well, then scald them with boiling water and allow to air-dry - the lids too. When you're sure they are bone dry, store with the lids on. Not a good idea to use lids from spicy stuff (pickles, curry sauce) for jam, it's hard to get the smell off them.
Apart from tasting yummy, you want your jam to keep, and you want it to set (not be too runny).
My mother used to cover her jam with a layer of wax to seal it and prevent mould, but that's not necessary with modern jars, which have a rubber seal built into the lid. Screwing the lid on immediately will create a vacuum seal as the jam cools. But the jars must be dry! The sugar in jam is a natural preservative, too.
Setting depends on pectin, a natural fibre found in plant cell walls and most concentrated in the skin of fruits. It is water-soluble and binds with sugar and fruit acid to form a gel
I usually make small batches - no more than  a kilo or so at a time (a kilo is 2.205 pounds or about 35 oz)
This amount cooks faster and, I think, tastes better.

Most jam recipes require that you cook the fruit first in a little water, then add the sugar and boil rapidly until setting point is reached. The reason for this is that adding sugar toughens the fruit skins, so they should be softened first. There a few exceptions to this method - fig jam for instance.
My recipe recommends soaking the figs and half the sugar overnight, and adding liquid and the rest of the sugar next day, then cooking all together.
Here's the exact recipe -
2 lb figs (32 oz), 1 lemon, 28 oz sugar, 11 fluid oz water, including 1/2 cup of lemon juice.
PM - Mince figs, or chop finely, add finely sliced whole lemon (seeds removed) and half the sugar.
Stir well, and leave overnight.
AM - Add liquid and remainder of sugar, cook about one hour, until setting point is reached.
I've modified this a bit, because my variety of figs are large and very juicy, so I don't see the need for extra liquid. And I like my fig jam lemony, so I use 2 lemons.

Here's what I did the other day -
PM - chopped the figs and weighed them = 1 Kilo. Put the deseeded and chopped lemons in the blender,
then added them to the figs with 500g sugar (half the weight of the figs). Stirred well to mix, and left to stand overnight.
AM - A very liquid mixture resulted, so I didn't add any water at all, just another 500g of sugar. If your figs are a bit dryer, you could add a bit of water, maybe up to a cupful.
Cooked just below a rolling boil until setting point was reached. Yummy!

NB these are different from my figs (picture from the internet) and you might need to add water with them.

How to tell if your jam is ready. When I start to cook the jam, I put a couple of saucers in the freezer.
When I think the jam is nearly done (you can see on the side of the pot how much the mixture has reduced, plus the texture changes) I put a teaspoon of jam on a saucer, and put it in the fridge - not the freezer - for at least 5 minutes. If the surface of your jam sample wrinkles when you push it with your finger, it's ready.
No wrinkles? Try again in 10 minutes or so.

A few other things about figs - don't use them for jam if they've been rained on recently - it won't keep;
and did you know, figs are flowers, not fruit?

Next time - quince jelly.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Pretty little things

I promised to show you what I've been making lately, so here goes...


I've been making brooches, quite a lot of brooches actually, it's a bit addictive.
These are all 2 1/2" x 2", hand embroidered  to my own designs. I think this little tree is my favourite so far.




 This one's pink lace over taffeta, with a sprinkle of beads, so pretty.



Another little tree, worked on tan linen.


Puffy little roses, on green linen


back view


not so sure about this one...


OK, this is brooch number 6. I'm having lots of fun, and plenty of ideas for more brooches. But clearly I'm going to have to stop, or start selling them...
Most people who sell brooches mount them on a piece of card, like this. But maybe I can do a little better than that, hmm?


 So I spent an entire whole day  designing a small origami box. A square box is easy, an oblong one is more of a challenge! But I finally got it right -


Now we just need a label on the back.

 Compared to making a quilt or a crochet rug, which takes weeks, these little brooches are almost instant gratification. I can embroider and assemble one in a day (the assembly and making the box takes nearly as long as the embroidery).

These have gone to the gift shop at Buda Historic Home and Garden.

I've made several more since these pictures were taken, though I guess I'll run out of steam eventually - I usually do with these things...
I'm learning as I go - how to make the backs neater, and what fabrics work best. I like to use recycled fabrics if I can, and I'm having fun doodling new designs.

Now I'm thinking of opening an Etsy shop.


Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Keats wrote a lovely "Ode to Autumn" celebrating this most glorious of seasons, when the mornings are crisp, and the leaves glow like wine.
We are having a run of beautiful, balmy days, and the garden is a joy - there are figs, and quinces, and a riot of late roses, and the ornamental grape vine looks like stained glass in the afternoon sun.

I took photos this afternoon, and thought I'd share them with you.

 
The ornamental grape, mingled with the lovely apricot Rosa 'Crepuscule'



I've been spending a lot of time on the back veranda, enjoying the autumn leaves


A lucky shot of R. 'Golden Wings'


and my favourite - R. 'Mutabilis'


 and this strange flower, promising some more old-fashioned fruit... anyone recognise it?

Sunday, April 15, 2012

A happy ending

It's been nearly two months since I posted here, and now that we have our happy ending, I'd like to tell you what happened.

On Valentine's day, my youngest daughter Susie developed a life-threatening illness. She had been sick over the previous weekend, with what she assumed was the flu, and on the Monday was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, with heart failure.

On Tuesday (Valentine's Day) her condition worsened, and her heart stopped beating.

She was quickly resuscitated, but later that evening it happened again. She was then placed on life support, and moved by special ambulance to the Alfred Hospital ICU (considered the best in Australia for heart problems.) At the Alfred she was placed into an induced coma, and was connected to an array of life-saving machines.

A heart biopsy showed that she had  lymphocytic myocarditis ( a severe heart infection). She was given large doses of steroids, and we waited to see if she would recover.

Nobody knew if the cardiac arrests had caused damage to her brain and other organs, though her family were pretty sure she was still "in there". We held her hand, and we talked to her.

After about five days, there were some signs of improvement, and in a few more days she was allowed to wake up - a bit - and she clearly knew us, and could wiggle her toes! Finally her heart and breathing improved enough to remove her from life support, and she was transferred to a cardiac ward.

She spent another two weeks in hospital. There is some damage to her heart, and she has had a defibrillator implanted. No apparent damage to her kidneys or other organs. She is still a bit weak - she lost a lot of weight, and will take a while to recover muscle tone. She now has to take a lot of pills, some of them permanently, but the doctors expect she will be able to live a normal life.

Susie's home with her family now, getting better every day, and looking forward to doing normal things, like driving her kids to school, and going shopping. She hopes to go back to work eventually, at least part-time.

Now that's obviously just the short version of what happened, and doesn't really convey the awfulness of those weeks, and the impact on those who love Susie. Her husband, Edi, was wonderful - he spent most waking hours (and quite a few when he should have been sleeping) at the hospital. The rest of the family - parents, three sisters, and several good friends - took turns to visit the hospital, and did our best to support Edi and their three daughters.

I read a lot of trashy novels in those first couple of weeks, to take my mind off the situation - Georgette Heyer, Nora Roberts, and so on. Then, when Susie was out of ICU, I came home and made her a quilt, with a lot of help and encouragement from a couple of quilting friends.

Events like this have a huge impact, more than you realise when you're running on adrenalin and doing your best to get through it all. Even writing this post has taken a long time, and I'll be glad to put it all behind me.

In the last couple of weeks, I've turned to my favourite form of therapy - embroidery. So don't expect any posts about family history for a while; I'm going to show you what I've been making instead...


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Away

Sorry I won't be posting here for a while, due to serious illness in the family.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Why you should clean your refrigerator occasionally

Well, more often than I do, any way. Like most modern fridges, mine automatically defrosts itself.

 Here's what happens when you don't clean your fridge very often -
 In the back of the cabinet is a condensor panel that is usually lightly frosted.
Every 6 to 8 hours, this panel is automatically heated for a few minutes, and the moisture falls into a receptor just below.
There's a little drain hole in the middle of the receptor, allowing the water to drain to a pan under the fridge, where it evaporates.

Occasionally (in poorly maintained appliances) stuff sticks to the frostiness, and then falls down and blocks the little drain hole.
This situation is usually indicated by the formation of a puddle under the fridge.
Remediation of the situation involves finding a long thin pointy implement, and poking it down the little hole, followed by mopping out the bottom of the cabinet, and possible the vegetable drawers as well. And the floor.
Truly dedicated housekeepers may even wish to investigate the drain pan, or maybe move the fridge and do a REALLY good job  of it. Not me - a girl's got to draw the line somewhere...

Friday, January 27, 2012

Fried tomatoes

It's fun to write about family history and days gone by, but even better to connect with real live family.
We've just spent a couple of days with Betty and Shirley, two of our Niewand cousins who travelled over from Minyip to visit.
My sister and I played tourist guide - our landscape is very different from the flat Wimmera country - and showed off the Art Gallery, Buda Historic Home & Garden, and the Aladdin's cave that is the Restorer's Barn. Three of my daughters lunched with us at Skydancers Cafe & Nursery, also making connections with rellies we don't see so often. A lovely couple of days!

Now it's Friday, so time to interrupt the family saga with a recipe -

In one of the Little House on the Prairie books (can't remember which one) Laura Ingalls Wilder described the early settlers serving tomatoes for dessert, with cream and sugar. I've never tried it myself, and it sounds a bit odd, but I have had tomato salad with a creamy dressing, and that definitely works.

This serves to remind us that tomatoes, like many of our 'vegies' are indeed fruit - think capsicum, zucchini, or pumpkin - and sometimes they are improved by adding a little sugar to the seasonings. Tomato sandwiches are definitely more 'tomatoey' with a sprinkle of sugar, ditto grilled tomatoes.

This is worth remembering now that the weather is warming up,and the tomatoes are ripening - lots of tomatoes!

Maybe you plan to make sauce, and tomato salad is nice these warm nights, but here's another idea - you could make Fried Tomatoes.

This couldn't be simpler, and makes a good Sunday night supper dish.

You'll need a large, high-sided frying pan (or a big pot). Slice a large brown onion, and soften it in a little oil. Then add chopped tomatoes, lots and lots of them - they will cook down considerably. Season with salt and pepper, a pinch of mixed dried herbs and a spoonful of sugar.
Simmer until reduced by at least half, and beginning to caramelise. This takes a while, and requires regular stirring so they don't burn. When you reckon they're done, taste and adjust the seasoning, and serve on toast.

You could fry some bacon with the onion, and add some crushed garlic, and basil or other fresh herbs, and maybe some chopped capsicum if you have some, but it's delicious with just the tomatoes and onion.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Exodus

For the next few posts, I'm going to indulge myself by including some speculative scenes - recreations of events as they may have been experienced at the time..

Always in italics, these 'cameos' are intended, like any other illustration, to add life and colour to the story. Please bear in mind, that although based on known facts, these scenes are FICTION. Personalities are merely supposed, and appearances guessed at. At times I have used astrological profiles based on date and place of birth. 'Dolly' Niewand, for example, is almost pure fiction. We don't know what she really looked like, or what the children called her - but I had a lot of fun inventing her!

Now bear with me while I set the scene...

In 1848, the Ministry of Finance in Hanover and the local authorities in the Harz decided to provide financial assistance to emigrants in the form of an interest-free loan, to be repaid within three or four years. South Australia seemed a suitable place, as the new copper mine at Burra would provide employment for experienced miners, and letters from earlier German emigrants were favourable.
The consul of the Kingdom of Hanover to South Australia, Mr C.L. Meyer, was in Bremen at the time and added his recommendation of the new colony. Mr Meyer also offered to help the emigrants to establish themselves. (And to collect the loan repayments, for a small consideration.)

On 8th August 1848, public notices went up, detailing the government’s offer of financial aid for emigration. Information on the climate of South Australia, average wages and the cost of living was also given.  Within a few weeks, over 700 people applied. They gave many reasons for wishing to leave, mainly poverty, and a desire for a better future for their children. Some also hoped for less exhausting work, or wanted to escape their in-laws. Those with large debts or large families were weeded out, as were the sick. Dependants could not be left behind as a continuing drain on the government, either.

You'll recall that at this point the family consisted of Dorothea Niewandt (Dolly) and her stepchildren Henriette (Nettie), Friedrich (Fred) and his wife Henriette, Frederika (Freda), and Heinrich (Heinie). It's August, 1848, and Fred and Heinie have finished work for the day...

 “Hurry up Heinie, your supper will be cold!”  The speaker stood in the road, the late summer sun casting long shadows behind him.
“Hang on Fred, I’m just reading this notice – didn’t you see it?”

“Another notice, who cares? They put up so many – don’t do this, remember that, mind the rules….” The speaker was clearly more interested in his evening meal.
“No, this isn’t about the mine, look!”
Humouring his younger brother, Fred walked over to the notice-board outside the mine office. “Opportunities in Australia” he read and shrugged. “and how are we supposed to get there?”
“It says here the Government will pay our fares, or at least give us loans” retorted Heinie, and grinned. “They obviously want to get rid of some of us.”
Fred smiled too “I can just see myself going home and telling Henriette that we’re off to Australia – like fun!” Heinie laughed aloud; everyone knew his sister-in-law wasn’t one to mince her words.
The brothers stepped out along the path, and nothing more was said on the subject.
 

But oddly, when Fred mentioned the notice that evening as they ate their supper, Henriette seemed quite interested. She knew that easygoing Fred would stay where he was, doing the same old work, until the day he died. Which was just as likely to be sooner than later, Henriette reflected sadly.
She had already lost her first husband in a mining accident, and she knew miners didn’t make old bones anyway, especially drillers like Fred – the dust got into their lungs, and they coughed their way to the grave.
Despite her sharp tongue, Henriette loved her husband, who worked so hard to keep her and the girls, when there was work to be had. She knew how disappointed he’d been at missing out on the overseer’s job, and it would have meant guaranteed work hours, too. She wouldn’t mind taking a look at that notice herself……

Fourteen groups left the Harz between 1848 and 1854. Once an application had been accepted, often only 4-6 weeks before the sailing date, the family had to sell all those possessions that couldn’t be taken along, and equip themselves as best they could for their new lives. New clothes would be made or bought, and all the necessary paperwork, birth certificates and passports obtained. Goodbyes must have been very hard; for the emigrants leaving parents, brothers and sisters, and the graves of lost children; and for those who stayed behind, farewelling their sons and daughters, knowing they would never see them again in this life, or the grandchildren yet unborn.

The Niewandt family must have been among the early applicants, as they left on the third ship bound for Australia, the Ceres, in December 1849. The passenger list shows Dorothea Niewandt, widow, accompanied by her children Henriette, Friederike, and Heinrich; and Friedrich and his wife Henriette accompanied by the two Dahle girls. The timing could not have been worse for Christian and Henriette, because she was about to have another child, and the baby would be born on the ship.

Other family and friends were part of the group that left Lautenthal for Australia. Andreas Conrad Martin Niewandt was a second cousin to our family. His wife, a relative of Henriette, had recently died, and perhaps he thought a fresh start would be best. Henriette’s sister-in-law, her husband and their small children were also going.

Monday, January 23, 2012

The family in Lautenthal

Time to do a little genealogy, and look at the composition of the Niewandt family in Lautenthal. Unfortunately it's not possible to post clear diagrams here, so we'll have to make do with a narrative.



Village life centred on the Lutheran church, a beautiful Baroque building built in the mid 1600s. The singing of hymns was an important part of worship, aided by an impressive organ, and membership of the choir was a privilege to be proud of.

The church registers trace the family from 1785, when Heinrich Christian Niewandt married Dorothea Elizabeth Buckbach. Heinrich gave his father's name as Christoph Niewandt, of Bad Grund, thus confirming his descent from the family there.

In 1818, his son, Johann Heinrich Christian Niewandt, married Johanne Friederike Elizabeth Richter, and they had at least four children -

Henriette, b. 1818
Christian Friedrich, b. 1820
Frederika, b. 1824
Heinrich Christian Andreas, b. 1830 (my great-grandfather)


the church organ
Johann's wife died in 1834, and he remarried in the same year to Dorothea Sauerbrei, who had a son, August Lauchs, from a previous marriage.
Johann died in 1846, leaving Dorothea  as head of the family.

In the same year, Friedrich married Henriette Dahle (nee Schubert) who had two daughters, Julie and Minna, from her first marriage.

Also living in Lautenthal were Johann's cousin Julius Niewandt, his  wife Johanne, and their son Andreas Conrad Martin Niewandt. (possibly there were other Niewandts too, but these are the immediate family)

In the 1840s, life in Lautenthal was becoming increasingly uncertain. Everywhere in the Harz, the mining industry was in decline. Some of the mines had been worked for over 700 years, and their great depth made ore extraction expensive. Imports of cheaper lead from South America caused prices to fall, putting many miners out of work. Everyone expected the mines to close in the next few years.

The mines were owned and operated by the government, and were fast becoming more of a liability than an asset. The miners were well looked after by the standards of the day - they had free medical attention, and pensions were paid to retired miners or their widows and orphans. Even if there was less work for them, miners were not usually discharged, but would receive an unemployment benefit. The amounts paid were very small, but the population was growing, and poor relief was an increasing drain on the government.
Clearly this situation could not continue, and the Hanoverian government began to consider assisted emigration as a solution.

(They did not move fast enough for some people, apparently; they burned their houses down so that they would have nowhere to live, and force the government to act. Not my family, as far as I know)

As the Niewandt family faced an uncertain future, the world outside the Harz was changing profoundly. The population of Europe was growing rapidly, and in Germany food production was not keeping pace with population growth. There was widespread unemployment, and mechanisation was making entire trades obsolete.

Across the seas, America had become an independent country, hungry for settlers, and many German people were already established there. Australia too was beginning to look past its beginnings as a convict dumping-ground, and realise the need for free settlers to develop the country’s potential.
The Niewandts would have been well aware of the opportunities in the New World – there is a record of a Heinrich Niewand living in Montgomery, New York State in 1793. All they needed was the means to get there.

photos from the website Paul-Gerhard-kirchengemeinde Lautenthal

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Where witches fly

Over the years I've collected quite a bit of of more-or-less interesting trivia about the Harz mountains of Germany, where my ancestors lived. Today I've been poking around in some of my old family history docs,  and gathered these for your edification -


Where witches fly
The highest peak in the Harz is the Brocken (1142m) known far and wide as the home of the Harzhexen (Harz witches). The witches, mounted on their wooden brooms, sweep across the sky above the Harz to their landing ground on the Brocken.

Long after the introduction of Christianity, the Brocken was the scene of pagan festivities on the Witches Sabbath, on April 30th each year. The witches were said to dance with the Devil until midnight, when the May King would arrive to clean them out. This was also an ancient Norse festival, for the god Odin married Freya on the last night of April.
Pagan beliefs survived in the Harz, perhaps due to isolation, longer than in any other part of Germany. The early Catholic priests tried to fit the festivities into the Christian calendar by renaming the feast ‘Walpurgisnacht’ after St. Walpurga, who was born on the 1st of May.

 The legends of the Brocken have inspired several musicians and writers, most notably Goethe’s ‘Faust’.  Walpurgis Night festivities continue to the present day, with parties and fireworks, not unlike the American tradition of Halloween, and many of the witches have landed in local tourist shops, hoping to emigrate to warmer climes.


Neanderthal Man was named for remains found in the Neander River valley at Dusseldorf, about 100 miles from Bad Grund.




Harz Roller is the name of a breed of domestic canary bred in the Upper Harz mountains of Germany. The birds were bred in the Upper Harz between Lautenthal and Sankt Andreasberg in the middle of the 19th century and achieved European-wide fame. Since 2001 there has been a Harz Roller Museum in Sankt Andreasberg.

By patient breeding a breed of canary was able to be produced that had a very pleasant, melodious song, full of variety and delivered with an apparently closed beak.

The breeding and sale of this popular breed of canary was an important secondary occupation for the mining folk as was the making of cages for the birds. Especially in the second half of the 19th century the business for these canaries boomed. In contrast to widespread legend, the birds were not used in the mines to indicate the presence of oxygen, they were too valuable for that. The Harz miners used captured wild birds for that purpose.


Miners in the Harz wore a kind of leather apron across their backs. Called an arse leather, the apron was thought to protect the kidneys, and kept their trousers dry, and cleaner.


Kate Greenaway illustration


Hameln (of Pied Piper fame).....is about 50 miles west of Lautenthal.  The Pied Piper of Hamelin (German: Rattenfänger von Hameln) is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages.
The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing, leading the children away from the town never to return.
In the 16th century the story was expanded into a full narrative, in which the piper is a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. When the citizenry refuses to pay for this service, he retaliates by turning his magic on their children, leading them away as he had the rats. This version of the story spread as a fairy tale. This version has also appeared in the writings of, among others, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the Brothers Grimm and Robert Browning.


early Bobbin lace


Lacemaking "Here lies Barbara Uttmann, died, 14 Jan. 1575, whose invention of lace in 1561 made her the benefactress of the Harz Mountains."  In fact, Frau Uttmann, wife of a rich mining overseer, didn't actually invent lace, but learnt the skill from a Flemish exile.
 According to legend, bobbin lacemaking came to the German Erzgebirge in around 1560 because a refugee from Brabant found a room in the house of the family Uttmann in Annaberg. She is said to have had her lace pillow with her and to have taught Frau Uttmann how to make bobbin lace. Barbara Uttmann is then said to have introduced bobbin lacemaking into the Erzgebirge and invented the bolster-shaped lace pillow which is typically used there. Until the advent of machine-made lace, bobbin lacemaking a source of income for many women in the Harz villages.




 The Lichtenstein Cave  is an archaeological site about 10 miles to the south of Bad Grund. The cave is 115 metres long and was discovered in 1972. Finds include the skeletal remains of 21 females and 19 males from the Bronze Age, about 3000 years old. In addition, about 100 bronze objects (ear, arm and finger rings, bracelets) and ceramic parts from the Urnfield Culture were found.
 DNA tests on 300 local inhabitants showed that 40 of them were descendants of these Bronze Age people.
The Lichtenstein site is closed to the public, but the Museum am Berg at Bad Grund has an exhibition about 'the oldest family in the world'.  In addition the museum looks at life in the Bronze Age and displays a number of artefacts from the period.

Katie's broccoli salad

For a variety of reasons, I haven't had time to blog lately, so I'm playing catchup today.  Here's your Friday recipe -

photo from Wikipedia
We are constantly told that broccoli is Good For Us, and we should eat it often. I do my best - we probably have it once a week or so - but it can be teeny bit boring.
My daughter Katie has a solution; she makes this broccoli salad, and it's always popular at family gatherings.

You will need:

2 big heads of broccoli, cut into very small florets and the stem cut up into tiny pieces
¼ purple onion, chopped fine
½ cup sunflower seeds
½ cup sultanas
3 rashers of bacon, cut finely and fried until crunchy

Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise (real egg mayonnaise, not sweetened)
Apple cider vinegar to taste (start with 1 tab)
Sugar to taste (start with 1 tspn)
Mix well until sugar is dissolved

Mix all together and add dressing.

Thanks for sharing, Katie!

Update: Katie says - "I must give credit where it's due, to Hugh's sister-in-law Melissa, who made it for us when they visited a few years ago. It's travelled far and wide, this recipe (because it's so yummy)."

Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Sunday reflection

No, not a sermon - perish the thought! Just some stuff I've been thinking about as I explore my family history.

When you fill out a Census form - or join Facebook - you are invited to specify your religious beliefs. For many of us, that's the only time we give any thought to religion. But for our ancestors, religion was the stuff of daily life, a vital part of a person's identity. So today I thought I'd look into the belief systems of our German and Irish forbears, and how they came about.

A very short history of Christianity.
The need for some kind of spiritual or religious belief system seems to be an integral part of human nature. Since the first men and women gathered around a fire, every society on the planet has had its rituals and its gods. Even today most individuals acknowledge some Deity or Higher Power as part of their personal ethos. The belief system of our immediate ancestors was Christianity. Whether they were German Lutherans or Irish Catholics, religious beliefs shaped their lives and the societies in which they lived.

In the year 2000, many of us are not regular churchgoers, and are more likely to be passionate about social issues than religious ones. But until recently, religious belief and worship were part of everyday life, and influenced many life-changing decisions.

Sermon on the Mount - Fra Angelico
Christianity began with Jesus Christ, an orthodox Jew born at Bethlehem in around 4 BC. Jesus lived for most of his life at Nazareth in Galilee, where he worked as a carpenter like his father Joseph. At the age of 26, Jesus was baptised by his cousin John the Baptist. Following a period of spiritual retreat in the desert, he began to teach the word of God and to heal the sick. His essential message is contained in the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in the Gospels.

To the Roman rulers of Galilee, Jesus and his followers were a potential source of civil discontent. He had a large following, and was openly critical of the Jewish leaders of the day. On a visit to Jerusalem in AD 30, Jesus was arrested and accused of blasphemy by the Jewish establishment. He was handed over to the local Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, who ordered his execution. He was crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem.

Convinced of his resurrection and ascent to Heaven as the Son of God, his followers, notably St. Paul, spread his teachings around the Mediterranean. The Romans, normally tolerant of religious diversity, were irked by Christian refusals to acknowledge the Emperor as a deity, and fed quite a few of them to the lions. Martyrdom added lustre to the new religion, and it continued to spread throughout the Roman Empire, until in 312 the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome.

After Constantine’s death the Roman Empire was divided in two. The eastern Empire, based in Constantinople, remained Christian, but western Europe fell to the invading barbarians. Christianity lost ground, and large areas of Europe had to be re-converted in the 6th century. By 1054 the eastern Christians could no longer accept the authority of Rome, and the Christian church split in two - the Eastern Orthodox church, ruled by a Patriarch, and the Roman Catholic church, led by the Pope. The mediaeval Papacy became increasingly powerful with the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and the wealth and influence of the church led to increasing laxity and abuses.
Martin Luther

In 1517 a Prussian monk and theologian, Martin Luther, was increasingly dismayed by the corruption and decadence of the Church hierarchy. He felt that they had strayed a long way from the original ideals taught by Jesus Christ. When Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of a Catholic church in Wittenberg, Saxony, he was initiating a religious debate in the accepted way. But his protest was the beginning of a new religious era, and heralded the end of the absolute dominance of the Catholic Church in Europe.

His objections, publicised throughout Germany by the emerging printing industry, played right into the hands of the local heads of State, long frustrated by the absolute power of the Holy Roman Empire – really an arm of the Church – and when Luther began urging local rulers to rebel against the iron-handed authority of Rome, they were much inclined to listen. In 1529, many German principalities and towns signed a document of ‘Protestation’ against the Emperor. Thus the members of the new, reformist Lutheran Church came to be known as Protestants.

Irish church ruins
Lutheran dissidence was soon followed by Calvinism in Switzerland, and the English reformation which had began with Henry VII’s rebellion (for his own reasons) against the Pope. Protestantism was popular with the common people, who had resented the huge wealth of the Roman establishment. Europe was quickly divided into the Protestant northern countries and the Catholic south, and religious and civil wars followed.

The Reformers purged their churches of Popish practices and returned to the Bible and the teachings of Christ as the word of God. In the atmosphere of religious fervour which followed, excessive zeal and bigotry were almost inevitable, with long-reaching results for many of our ancestors. Fighting for one’s religion, or enduring persecution for it, tends to confirm a belief in the ‘Rightness’ and ‘One Trueness’ of a personal creed. So Catholics and Protestants became implacable foes, each equally hating and fearing the other, a situation which has endured almost to the present day, and has influenced the decisions and shaped the ways of life of both our Catholic and Protestant forbears.

Even today, many of my relatives actively practice their Catholic or Lutheran faith, and strive to live as good Christians, and for many their faith is a source of comfort and sustenance.

There seems to be far more tolerance between Protestants and Catholics now, unlike the bigotry my parents experienced before their marriage. Today our distrust seem more directed towards members of the Muslim faith, due to the activites of a misguided few.

Interior of Lutheran church, Bethany, SA
For my German forbears, their religion had many positive aspects, not the least of which was literacy - since Martin Luther decreed that all children should attend school, so they could read their Bibles and their hymnbooks. Many parties of Germans emigrating to Australia were actually church congregations, including their Pastor, and a church and school were the first buildings they erected on arrival. Family historians have cause to be grateful to the Lutheran pastors, in Germany and Australia, for the meticulous records they kept.

My great-aunt was  a  nun
By contrast, my Irish convict forbears, Thomas and Bridget, were both illiterate, having been born in an Ireland occupied by the British, where the education of poor Catholic children was discouraged. But theirs  had been a Catholic country for centuries, and succeeding generations were quick to take advantage of any schooling available, and become devout members of their Church once more.

I was raised in the Catholic faith, but as a teenager I became disenchanted with many aspects of the Church. Like many since, I was confused and uncertain of the value of religion in my life. For most of us, that's the end of the matter- we continue to observe the values we have learned, while rejecting faith in a Supreme being.

And yet, all the major religions - Catholic, Protestant, Judaism, Muslim, Buddhist and others - have rules that show us how to live in the world, observing the rights of others, striving for goodness within ourselves. Without this foundation, how do we manage to be good citizens and good people? Have we, in rejecting religion, thrown the baby out with the bathwater?

Friday, January 13, 2012

Paradise slice

Gillies Pie and cake shop in Bendigo used to make Paradise slice, but they stopped :-(
I was sad about this, and decided to make my own version, based on a cake my mother used to make.
This is a slice with a pastry base, topped with a light fruit cake, and it's yummy.

 Preheat oven to 180C, grease and paper a 19 x 29 cm slice tin.

 For the base - 125g butter, 2 cups SR flour, 1 cup light brown sugar
Mix flour and sugar, rub in butter to make a fine crumbly mixture.
Press 1/2 the mixture into base of tin. (if you have scales, use them to evenly divide the mixture by weight - otherwise, it's easiest to make two batches of the mixture, using half the ingredients)

The cake - to remaining half of mixture, add
1 well-beaten egg, 2/3 cup milk,
1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice,
and 1 cup mixed dried fruit.
The mixture will be a bit sloppy, that's OK.
Spoon it onto the base, and bake for 45- 60 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

Allow to cool in the tin, then ice with pale pink icing, and sprinkle with 100s and 1000s.

This is Mum's original recipe - she called it Armenian Spice Cake.

Preheat oven to 180C, grease and line an 8" square tin (20cm or therabouts)

For the base - mix 2 cups plain flour, 2 tsps baking powder 2 cups light brown sugar.
Rub in 1/2 cup butter (125 g) until you have fine crumbs.
Place half the mixture in the bottom of the prepared tin, and press down well.

Cake mixture - 1 tsp carb soda, 1 cup milk, 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp ground nutmeg.
Dissolve soda in the milk, add the beaten egg and nutmeg, and stir into the remaining crumb mixture.
Pour onto the base, and bake approx 1 hour, until firm when tested.

When cool, ice with white buttercream icing, and sprinkle with nutmeg. (or may be decorated with chopped walnuts if desired.)

BTW, Gillies still sell the best meat pies from their shop on the corner of Williamson St. and Hargreaves Mall, and just a block away, also on Williamson St., the Eaglehawk Bakery sells a wonderful version of Beesting Cake. Just in case you're peckish...

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Life in Lautenthal

The record of St Andreas Kirche in Lautenthal show the Niewand family living there from 1785 until they emigrated in 1849. Lautenthal takes its name from the Laute river which flows through the town, and is an ancient village, dating back to at least the 1530s, though the area was inhabited for thousands of years before that.
(Click to enlarge pictures)

Illustration from a book published in 1658. Plumes of smoke at left from the smelters.

The old mine buildings at Lautenthal house a Museum of Mining. It is even possible to be married in the old mine chapel. For the traditionally minded, St. Andreas Kirche still faces the Markplatz as it has done since Martin Luther’s day, though he might be surprised to discover that the church is now shared with the Catholic congregation!

Many residents today run guest houses for visitors, or work in the tourist industry. A modern tourist brochure lists the attractions: in the winter there are snow sports, in the summer sailing on the lakes and hiking through the forests. You can also take a health cure at one of the sanitariums, which features a pump house for the mineral water, a heated pool and mud wraps. The fresh, clean mountain air is an added attraction.

Mining in the Harz
Archeological studies have shown that there were mines in the Harz since the 3rd century. This early mining was done with the simplest technologies. The mines were just holes in the ground down to a depth of about 40 metres, and the ore was brought up with hand winches. Between 1348 and 1379 the Black Death (bubonic plague) raged across Europe; nearly all the people in the Harz died and mining ceased.
In 1532, a prospector found a large silver deposit in the valley of the Laute river, and mining began again with the support of the regional lords. As so many years had passed, nobody knew how to mine any more, and workers had to be recruited from other mining regions.
Most of them came from the Erzgebirge region, near the Czechoslovakian border, and they settled in the Harz with their families. To encourage the new workers, the lords granted special privileges, called "Bergfreiheit" (literally ‘freedom of the mountain).    These privileges included

    Lautenthal coat of arms
  • exemption from taxation
  • the right to hunt
  • the right to brew
  • the right to fish
  • the right to cut wood
  • the right to vote
(The history as written implies that the local lords granted these privileges from the goodness of their hearts, but it doesn’t seem likely. The diminished population after the plague had meant labour shortages, and consequently improved bargaining power and general conditions for the peasants of Europe. Those imported miners seem to have been pretty good  industrial negotiators.)

Lautenthal, like most of the towns in the western Harz, dates from this time, and the area soon became prosperous. Originally silver was mined, and later lead, zinc, tin, and some copper. Mining continued there until the 1930’s, when cheaper foreign ore caused most of the mines to close.
Only two mines continued: the Rammelsberg at Goslar, closed in 1988, and the Hilfe Gottes at Bad Grund, which closed in 1992.

Mining has always been difficult, dirty and dangerous work, and the Harz mines were no different. Despite their privileges, the miners of Lautenthal and Bad Grund worked long and hard for their wages.
Originally the only light the miners had was a candle – just one candle each, there was no other lighting in the shafts or in the tunnels. Later carbide lamps were used, and eventually electric lighting.

As the mineral veins were followed into the rock, the mines became ever deeper – some of them as much as 400 metres below ground. So every morning the miners climbed down on ladders. It took about an hour to get down to the working face, and after they had worked their 8 or 12 hour shift, another 2 hours to climb back up again. This 3 hours of climbing wasn’t paid time, either.

In the 1830’s someone finally invented a kind of Bosun’s Ladder, powered by the mine waterwheel, which shortened the up and down time to about 20 minutes each way. Even better, hardly any physical energy was needed. It wasn’t terribly safe, of course, but one can’t have everything.

In the 16th century the only power source for the mines was the huge wooden waterwheels. which enabled the ore to be winched up to the surface. To power these wheels, reservoirs were dug, over 70 of them through the area, connected by ditches.

The only way to keep the mines dry enough for working, was by means of drainage tunnels cut through the rock. For a long time there was no powder or dynamite for blasting, so the tunnels were hewn out by hand with a hammer and miner’s bar. A miner could cut out about 3 metres of rock in a year.

Every mine had a chapel near the entrance, where the miners would assemble before going underground. Here prayers would be said at the start of each shift, followed by a roll call. This not only recorded each man’s working hours, but enabled the management to know how many men were underground in case of an accident.

The miners were well trained – a young miner or Berggesell, (literally ‘miner’s mate’) served an apprenticeship before he could call himself a Bergmann (miner). But miners didn’t often make old bones; if you managed not to fall down a shaft, and avoided anything heavy falling on you, there was still the prospect of ‘miner’s disease’ or silicosis. This was a lung disease caused by breathing the dust in the mines.

If mining was hard on the men, it was also hard on the local countryside. Rivers were dammed and the original forests were cut down for timbering the mine tunnels, and later to make charcoal for smelting the ore. The native bears and wolves are now extinct, but  lynxes, which were also extinct, have recently been re-introduced to the Harz.  Deer, foxes, and badgers still remain.

Extensive reforestation has also taken place - the Harz is now a National Park - and there is a beautiful Arboretum at Bad Grund.

If you want to know more about the region, there are websites for the Harz, Bad Grund, and Lautenthal.

Images in this post from Wikimedia & Wikicommons