Treating pneumonia - colonial style

On 7 November 1873 my 2nd great grandfather Josef Zoller died of pneumonia. Pneumonia was sweeping through the country at the time and was often reported in the papers as being spread through cattle coming from Queensland. For six weeks Josef was in a debilitated state before he finally died.

Unlike today it would have been unlikely that Josef would have survived the bout of pneumonia which was described as the captain of the men of death and vied with tuberculosis as the leading cause of death at the time. Without penicillin, antibiotics, modern surgical techniques and intensive care contracting pneumonia, or the treatment for it, was almost always fatal.  Some of the remedies in use at the time were bleeding and cold water baths or the modern treatment called the Huxham tincture - a medicinal drink that was recommended by physicians for many years. The tincture as described in A New Family Encyclopedia (1833) consisted of:

• two ounces of Peruvian bark powder
• half an ounce dried orange peal
• three drachms (teaspoons) Virginia snake root
• one drachm saffron
• two pounds proof spirits (rum)

Steeped for fourteen days and strained, a good preparation of the bark was taken as a bitter, a teaspoonful to a glass of wine before eating and considered useful in lowering fevers.


Is it any wonder my poor old grandfather died!

Land Search Results

Yesterday I told you how good Trove was and today it didn’t disappoint. A search today found three items about land transactions of my family.

The first one I see shows him selling property (which means he must have purchased some in the first place). I can use this information to check for a land title or perhaps on an early property map of the district see exactly where his property was.

February 1866 - The Darling Downs Gazette and General Advertiser

describing the sale of a ... Highly valuable 1 acre allotment near the corporation sale yards well know as the property of Mr Zoller to be sold at auction 17 Feb 1866. 2 chains frontage to Neil Street, by a depth of 5 chains, being under cultivation and fit for a residential site and garden, in the centre of the town, having a beautiful view and lying in an elevated and dry position.

This second one gives me some more information to search at the Titles Office.

December 1883 The Queenslander

Reporting … the Helidon Land Court grants William Zoller certificates for eighty acres of land at Flagstone – being selection 885 portion 29.

This third one might give me a date when the property was sold or did the family rebuild? Looks like I need to get to the Titles Office soon for the answers.

July 1906 The Brisbane Courier

Recording ... about 2 o’clock this morning a four roomed cottage situated in Hume Street, near the intersection of Perth Street, was completely destroyed by fire. The building, which was unoccupied, was owned by Mr Zeller. The alarm was given some time after the fire commenced and the house had collapsed when the fire bridge arrived.

Digisited Newspapers

I just love Trove! For those of you who don’t know Trove is Australian online resources: books, images, historic newspapers, maps, music, archives hosted by the National Library of Australia. In their own words … Trove is an unrivalled repository of Australian material. Trove is for all Australians. Whether you are tracing your family history, doing professional research, reading for pleasure, teaching or studying, Trove can help.

I am always on Trove looking for my ancestors. But before you get too excited it does have some limits. Let’s look at the digitised newspapers … not every paper, book or item in online. So for instance in the Toowoomba district one of their main papers The Toowoomba Chronicle is not digitised (but I’m ever hopeful). I also think the usual privacy conditions to protect the living apply as the latest date for the Queensland publications is the mid 1950’s. No matter there is still plenty to be found.

Here are some search tips:

• You will probably need to try several variations of spelling and combinations of first and surname just to make sure you get all the information that’s out there. Try everything and remember old names were often shortened I’ve seen my Wilhelm as Wlm and Wm as well as Wilhelm and William.
• If you get no results broaden your search instead of Wm Zoeller just try Zoeller; if you get too many results you can restrict further by timeframe, type of writing (article, family notice, advertising) and region or paper.
• Check and re-check your finds. I once found some fantastic articles about a guy with exactly the same name as my great grandfather, living in the correct time and town but it wasn’t him. Just keep those ones tucked away until you can confirm they are your person. If it isn’t him well you’ve had a good read.
• Don’t restrict yourself to the town your ancestors came from. News, particularly in Colonial Queensland, was shared and spread among newspapers. I have found some fantastic references to a court case involving one of my ancestors in a newspaper 150km away from their home but nothing from their local paper (perhaps all the local papers for that timeframe were destroyed by my ancestors - ummm).
• Use combination searches Zoeller AND (Wm OR William OR Wilhelm)
• Use quotes to search for phrases “William Zoeller”

At the moment I’m searching about the land owned by my 2nd great grandfather. If I find anything I’ll share soon.

... by any other name

Ever been frustrated by a difference in your ancestors name? Names are mistakenly transcribed with double letters and other extras, different accents result in spelling variations and an A suddenly becomes an O, nicknames are used and I even have one who decided she didn't like her name and simply changed to another.

Colonial Queensland just didn't seem to cope with European names which were quickly anglicized or at least spelled phonetically. So my family has variations of Zöller, Zoller, Zoeller, Zeller, Seller, Sellers and Sellars. And that's just for three brothers. I must say the Seller variations did surprise me as they have been in use as early as sixteen years after arriving in Queensland while the Zöller variations evolved over a longer time.

Almost from the start I knew our surname had changed, Dad's told me of his grandfather William fervently keeping to Zoeller throughout both world wars and despite all his children readily adopting the less German sounding Zeller variation. But what I didn't expect is that Josef (the father of my three brothers) would appear on official documents under each name variation of his sons. So in 1854 we see Josef Zöller on the baptism certificate of his youngest son William; in 1870 we see Josef Seller on the marriage certificate of his eldest son Oswald Seller; and in 1873 as Josef Zoeller on his own death certificate with sons Oswald, Charles and William Zoeller. Interestingly, the local parish priest who officiated all three ceremonies was the same person who surely noticed the surname variations!

What interesting variations have you had in your family names?   

Asking why?

I spend a lot of my time asking why? (something I've done since I was a child apparently) but the why is what often pushes research along.  Why doesn't my Dad know much about his grandparents?  Is his experience (the younger son of the youngest sons) different to his cousins (older sons of the eldest sons)? And if so, why?  

But the biggest why I often have is why my ancestors came to Australia!  My German's are a tricky lot - no easily traceable convicts, no Irish farmers during the hunger, no one obviously seeking to make their fortune through the goldrushes.   So why does someone married for sixteen years and living in a village their family has done for generations decide to take a perilous journey for almost six months to a land on the other side of the world?  The answer to that why told me a lot about my 2nd great grandfather Josef.

What I found was a little bit sad.  During their marriage Josef and his wife Anna had buried two daughters and three sons as well as Josef's sister and both his parents. The family had survived the famines of 1846 and '47 but grain was becoming too expensive and potato blight widespread. The wine produced in '48 and '50 was poor quality and full-scale war threatened across Germany.  Perhaps after all that, Josef and Anna weren't prepared to send their last two sons to war.  But how brave must they have been to take their sons to a new life in a strange country with a strange language.

That courage was tested almost immediately they began their voyage as icebergs and gales damage the ship,  destroy thirty sails and one of the crew is lost. The captain records five deaths and measles spread through the ship.  Thankfully there were other German's on board to share the worry in their native tongue.

In Australia, Josef was expecting to be employed as a vine dresser but destiny had other ideas and the family is transferred to the Darling Downs where a labour shortage means that Josef is now a shepherd living on a property close to a town with only basic infrastructure and minimal wine industry.  It must have been a shock.

Drayton 1856 as it would have been experienced by Josef and his family

So did I answer my why?  Not really without a bit of guessing, but I did learn a lot about my ancestors - their courage, adaptability and the risks they were prepared to take to make a better life for their family.  Imagine if I hadn't asked that why and the insights I'd be missing.

(photo from State Library of Queensland)