A very significant day

Today is a very significant day in my family.

On this day, 27th October 1841 my ancestors set foot on Australian soil for the very first time.

I was not aware of this special date until recently. Last weekend we had a huge family reunion, something that was 166 years in the making. My great, great, great Grandfather and his family left their homeland in Prussia (now Poland) and travelled on a perilous journey to the new colony of South Australia. The fledgling settlement was not even five years old. They left their homeland behind forever because of religious persecution. The new land offered freedom, opportunity and the promise of a new beginning.

It was a brave move indeed. On the long journey to South Australia my great, great, great Grandfather died on the ship, along with one of his children. Another family from the same village also travelled on the same ship. The mother and four of five children also died on the voyage. It seemed that their brave adventure would come to an end before they had even arrived.

Not so.

Within the first year of their arrival, these two families merged into one through marriage. The rest, as they say, is history. The descendants now number over six thousand and the family has had a significant impact on the development of this state, and of other parts of Australia.

With the launch of the family history book last weekend, the bare bones of the history and heritage of my family has been well documented. I enjoy reading historical accounts but this book could only tell part of the story. During our celebrations last weekend I couldn’t help but think that the story of my family’s epic struggle for survival would make a wonderful novel or series of novels – even a film.

I didn’t really need another writing project, but this one is just begging to be written.