Potter Index

Introduction

This web site came about because communication with a large number of my relatives, (mainly in Bundaberg, thanks to Uncle Jim), in recent times has revealed that most of them have little knowledge of their Potter ancestry, their need to know more about where they came from and the realization that I am one of the only relatives left on earth who was born and lived in the one place in Australia where it all started .

As most would know, to trace a family to it's roots is a path that leads every which way, with bends and curves, hills and valleys, highways that lead to sheer walls of nothing and overgrown foot tracks that meander into clearings of knowledge.

In recent years the introduction of the home computer, the internet and email have brought people seeking answers to the missing branches to their family tree together with the ability to share information more readily.

Knowledge of our Heritage is important to most of us. Whether you use the information for learning or a simple source for birthday information, it is here to be used and for ongoing additions by anyone interested.

Please Note: In the following text, when I talk about My Ancestors I am refering to the Heratige of all Potter families and descendants on this site, except when I refer to my own Mother.

My Family
So far, I have researched the Potter family tree back to the 1600’s in Germany and England.
Although my Mothers heritage was interesting because her Father had enlisted in the army in England to fight the Bores, he then migrated to Australia and volunteered for enlistment in the Australian Army to fight in the first world war, he was a boilermaker by trade and he came from a family line of tradesmen in London. My Fathers heritage was more interesting because of his Mothers German ancestry and the German influence in our Countries history.

My Fathers Mother was Maria Ganufeva Walz, and her father migrated to Australia from Germany in 1845. This is the interesting part because one of her relatives was a man named Zillman.

Where it Started
Zillmere was where the once grandiose Potter homestead stood and where I was born. Zillmere was once known as Zillman's Waterhole, named after Johann Leopold Zillmann, one of the German missionaries brought out by John Dunmore Lang to establish the mission at Nundah, but who stayed on to farm in the area after it closed down. When the railway came through, the name was changed to Zillmere by the Railway department.

From Government Archives:
“The cause of primitive Christianity in Queensland has not yet attained its jubilee. The State itself is young, having been proclaimed an independent Colony in 1859. Twenty years from the time of writing, the first church on New Testament lines was organized at Zillmere, a few miles from Brisbane, across the road from the Potter Homestead.”

The Potter homestead stood where the Child care centre is today, at the back of the centre one of my relatives is buried and all Potter descendants have permanent access to the grounds.

My Great Grandmother was Fredericke Baumann, her Brothers Son was Edward Baumann, my childhood mentor and Guardian.
Eddie Baumann was known in the area as the greatest horseman to ever put a leg over a wayward horse. Repetition of ancestral habits are amazing to observe, even when there is no physical connection with descendants, most of the Potter families have followed the tradition of horse Trainers, Jockeys and handlers, stamping their signature in all parts of the country.

I spent most of my early life at the Baumann farm, which was located in the property of Hutton's Bacon Factory. Hutton's Bacon Factory was where some of our ancestors learned about butchery, later to have butcher shops around the country.

Most of our ancestors were Missionaries, farmers and/or tradesmen in different professions and sometimes proprietor's of their own businesses. Some of them came from professional backgrounds in their respective countries and migrated to Australia for the challenge of "having a go" in a harsh country, the adventure of exploring a new place on earth and the riches that sometimes come from forbidden dreams.

German influence

German Missionaries had been recruited by the Reverend John Dunmore Lang to convert the Aborigines in the Moreton Bay area (present-day Brisbane) to Christianity.
Moving on from Sydney to Moreton Bay on 20th March, the completely self-supporting group of 19 adults and 11 children formed the first free white settlement in what is now Queensland - the penal settlement for secondary punishment of convicts was about 11 kms away. The Zion's Hill missionary station, led by Pastors C. Eipper and K. W. Schmidt, was later known as German Station, then since 1885 as Nundah.

The missionaries experienced a lot of hardship and found it difficult to gain lasting influence on the Aborigines, because the native Australians moved around a lot. In 1839 the Moreton Bay convict settlement was closed and government support for the missionaries stopped. The missionaries had to support themselves, however, this was not a big problem as several of the original missionaries were tradesmen and farmers, and they provided vegetables to other settlers.

The five Germans who began this farming could be considered the first free farmers in Queensland. In June 1843 the German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt visited the German Station and wrote that the missionaries had made little progress in their missionary work with the Aborigines. By 1850 German Station had ceased to be a missionary facility.

The first homes they built were made of mud and thatch, but once their first crops had been sold, they built more solid slab wall and shingle-roofed houses.
Germans moved into the first areas that were opened up by the Government for agricultural settlement, and some of these areas were hilly and clearing the scrub for cultivation was very hard work, all done with hand-tools in those days (whatever they could carry in with them). Crops had to be protected (usually by the children) from wallabies, rats and birds.

Apparently the German settlers sometimes referred to Queensland as Quälsland (land of torment)! This type of terrain made the land more suitable for small mixed farms, and most of Queensland's Germans came from a rural farming background, whereas most British migrants were from cities

Sir Thomas McIlwraith (3-times Premier of Queensland between 1879-1893), said in the Queensland Parliament:
"Having disembarked from the ships and spent one or two days in the Immigration Depot, the German immigrants disappear. One hears or sees nothing of them for 18 months or a couple of years, when some fine day they return from the bush in their own attractive turn out, wife and children seated high, and all well-dressed and happy-looking."

Although Germans initially settled in the southeast corner of the colony, soon German immigrants headed north, with many involved in sugarcane growing in the Bundaberg area, Rockhampton, the Mackay area, West to the shearing sheds, and some gold-seekers going to Charters Towers. In 1890 all 6 of the sugar mills in the Logan district were owned by or managed by Germans. Where numbers of Germans were high enough, German schools, Lutheran churches, German associations (with the usual gymnastics and choral societies) were established.

By 1900 the Darling Downs had around 700 German families, three Lutheran churches and a German association. In the farming communities, until around 1900, the social and moral focus was their Lutheran church rather than German associations. In Bundaberg evidence of the large German population can be still seen today in Family, Place and Street names along with the German architecture in building throughout the City.

German associations played a bigger role in the towns. Prior to World War I there were many German placenames in the areas of German settlement (during the war the state government changed most of the German names.

By 1900 there were 600 German-speaking families in Brisbane, and Germans were active in all walks of life, from members of parliament to varied types of businesses.

Our German Families
We recognize: BAUR, BEAUMANN, BERGMAN, BETKE, EICHMAN, FAWKE, HAMMER, HASS, HERMANN, HEINE, HIRN, JORGENSON, MIGNER, NEIS, OLDEN, PHILP, POHLMAN, RUDINGA, REIS, STEINDL TROTTER, VOLTZ, VOLZ, WALZ, WEBER, WERDER, YOUNGER, ZILLMAN, ZUNKER.

WALZ

The German term auf der walz meaning to go on the walz or on the road. This expression referred to the custom where an apprentice in various trades or crafts, was required to serve an allotted period traveling around the country or outside Germany gaining experience and new techniques for their trade.

During this period auf der walz, the apprentice gained employment with master craftsman in various towns, earning his living as he went and sleeping where he could. All this was part of the guild system for apprentice tradesmen, and was not abolished until about 1911. He was required to carry a special book [handwerksbook] in which he had to have entered by each master that employed him, particulars of the work he learnt, its duration, and his conduct. Upon the completion of his allotted time for being on the walz the apprentice could return to his village and practice as a tradesman.

The word Matilda comes from Teutonic origin meaning Mighty Battle Maiden. Then through the years was the name given to the females that followed the soldiers in the thirty year European war.

These Matildas that followed the soldiers would keep them warm at night. So the word was then used to describe the grey army coats that the soldiers wore or carried with them, thus Matilda was the name given to the swag or blanket that was carried, usually over the shoulder, to keep them warm at night. Hence; Waltzing Matilda, to go walkabout looking for a job with your tools of trade and the things that kept you warm at night.

The Jolly Swagman

The death of the most famous Australian of them all, Banjo Paterson’s legendary swagman, German shearer Samuel Hoffmeister, focused the eyes of the nation on the trouble in the interior as authorities met in NSW and Queensland to deal with the "civil insurrection"

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong

Dagworth Station, where Waltzing Matilda was written was a central focus of the shearing strike. Only weeks before Banjo Paterson arrived at Dagworth station the shearing shed was burnt down by a gang of unionists. One of the leaders, Samuel Hoffmeister, who was believed to have torched the shed, apparently shot himself the next morning beside the billabong that the unionists were camped in.

Little is known of Samuel Hoffmeister except that he was of German descent and that he had been a union organiser. However the man who inspired Banjo Paterson’s Waltzing Matilda and played such a significant role in being the catalyst for our most famous song, deserves to be recognised and remembered.

Our little song has found its way from the remote Queensland plains to every corner of the earth, and the Swagman, or [jolly] Swagman has become a symbol of the Australian identity, but few Australians actually know the true meaning.

These Swagman were mostly shearers, following the shearing season, shearing millions of sheep. At times, enduring appalling conditions, these men would perform their back breaking task with a wit and humour that unfortunately is being lost to modern Australia.

These very same men forged the term mateship, and through their unity and trust bonded together to form unions in the 1890’s. To these men we owe a great debt, if it had not been for their unshakable resolve, Australia would have been burdened and inhibited by British class distinctions.

Yes! these were the Swagman of the 1890’s that went Waltzing Matilda along with some of our own ancestors. Our German Ancestral name, Walz, is also our own little bit of connection to the song that celebrated sporting victories, echoed around school room walls and walked Prime Ministers into office. Waltzing Matilda could not possibly have been written in any country other than Australia.

So, don't be disillusioned if you sometimes feel that you want to leave your secure job, pack your bag and go on the road, because you are simply feeling some genetic urge to do exactly as your ancestors did, it is why you are Australian.

German Ancestral Immigration

My german ancestors immigrated from Westernhausen, Wurttemberg, Germany between 1863-1877. The Walz line came from Oberkessach, Marlach and Westernhausen back to the early 1600's. Three brothers and one sister came to Australia. One brother, Jacob immigrated to USA 1872 and a sister Crenzens and brother Josef Valentin apparently stayed in Germany.

SHIPPING DETAILS
Joseph Martin Walz and Franz Michael Walz departed Hamburg 21.9.1863 on the "Sussanna Goddefrey" and arrived in Brisbane on the 17.1.1864.

Four Generations of Walz in Germany, 1850.

Carl Barthelemew Walz departed London 4.10.1873 on the "Winefred" and arrived in Brisbane on the 14.1.1974.

Maria Anna Hirn (nee Walz) and her three children Johann (b1864) Maria Crenzentia (b1866) and Fritz (b1871) departed Hamburg 15.6.1877 on the "Fritz Reuter" and arrived in Rockhampton 6.10.1877.

Friedericke Betke (nee Baumann) with her family departed Hamburg 1865 on the "Wandraham" and arrived Brisbane 12.1.1866. Friedericke's first husband and three children died on board ship.

Antonia Reis together with her mother, Katherine,and her sister Justina and brother John Martin departed London 1.7.1884 on the "Chyebassa" and arrived Brisbane 25.8.1884. Also on this ship was Bernard Schlein who later married Anna Barbara Reis in 1888. Her sister Margaretha together with her husband Franz Eichmann and their children arrived in Brisbane on the 21.10.1884 on the "Dorunda"

5. Maria Ganufeva Walz, b. 1871 in Nundah, Brisbane, d. 1935 in Zillmere, Brisbane

Father: 4. Joseph Martin Walz, b. 1838 in Westernhausen, Germany, d. 1909 in Aspley, Brisbane
Mother: Fredericke Baumann, b. in Germany, d. in Aspley, Brisbane

Spouse: William Frederick Potter, b. 1867 in Zillmere, Brisbane, d. 1933 in Zillmere, Brisbane

Father: George Potter, b. in London, England

Married.

Children and grandchildren:

English Families

POTTER

My Grandfather, William Frederick Potter's heritage was similar to my Mothers Father, a long line of tradesmen originating in England and migrating to Australia in the early 1800’s.
The Potter line is very hard to research because there are so many Potter's in the world, but more Information is to be added here as time permits.

The name Potter originated in England in the 11th century with a family coat of arms.

The History of Our Names

British surnames became fixed in the period between 1250 and 1450. The broad range of ethnic and linguistic roots for British surnames reflects the history of Britain as an oft-invaded land. These roots include, but are not limited to, Old English, Middle English, Old French, Old Norse, Irish, Gaelic, Celtic, Pictish, Welsh, Gaulish, Germanic, Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Among the most common names are those specialty crafts and trades that were common during medieval times. The Miller was essential for making flour from grain. The Sawyer cut timber into workable lengths, with which the Carpenter could make specialty items for villagers. Some names were a reflection of the place of employment rather than the job itself -- the name Abbott generally refers to the man who was in the employ of the abbey as a servant or other worker; the man named Bishop more than likely worked at the house of the Bishop rather than holding the position. Some names were taken as titles that were originally less occupational, such as Mayor. Some surname occupations are no longer in existence but were enough to identify a man in medieval days. Occupational surnames are self-explanatory: Barber, Plumber, Baker, Potter etc. Some apparently obvious occupational names aren't what they may seem, however. A Farmer did not work in agriculture but collected taxes, and Banker is not an occupational surname at all, meaning "dweller on a hillside".
Medieval occupations are reflected in many English surnames. Some are obvious; others not so. We recognize: BAKER, CARPENTER, CARTWRIGHT, COOK, COOPER, FISHER, GARDNER, HUNT/HUNTER, MARCHANT/MERCHANT, MASON, MILLER, PARKER, PARSONS, PEPPER, POTTER, SAWYER, SMITH, TANNER, THATCHER, TURNER, TYLER, WAINWRIGHT, WEAVER, and WRIGHT.

There is still a lot to research and a long way to go with branches in all directions, so any help from interested parties would be appreciated. Simply send me your family information, with photos if you want them published, and I will add your information to this site.

Please let me know if I have made any mistakes in your part of the family.

email: bpotter8@optusnet.com.au
Po Box 227, Gin Gin, 4671.

Bevan Potter.

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