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The GEORGE WASHINGTON - PASSENGER LIST
This list was prepared by the Archivist Dr. F.H. J. Blaess and supplied as extracts from the 1969 and 1970 Yearbooks, the report then lists, in alphabetical order, name, occupation, town of origin, and their current occupation/location at time of compilation for the respective emigrants from George Washington together with specific family history about direct descendants.
Dr. F.H. J. Blaess concludes the copy supplied:
It is interesting to note that the GEORGE WASHINGTON passengers had received a grant of two hundred pounds from the South Australian Company, because the Company was anxious to encourage German emigration to South Australia. Not long after their landing in South Australia, the passengers realised that they would not require the money, and, at a meeting called to consider the question,
resolved “to give the money to the poor.” The resolution was duly carried out.
Synod at Hahndorf in 1845 passed a resolution concerning the matter:
| A. |
That the 200 pounds donated must be allotted to the poor to enable them to discharge the debt of their passage money. He who has paid off his ship’s debt is to be classed with the rich.” |
| B. | That in case one of these poorer immigrants dies before the debt to his creditors is paid, or if by force of circumstances finds himself unable to pay, his children are under obligation to pay the debt: and that, in case no children survive him, the whole party of George Washington, creditors as well as debtors, must shoulder the indebtedness; |
| C. | Synod also resolved to take immediate steps to remove the evil report which the party from the George Washington had brought upon itself by an intimation to the S.A. Company that the donation of 200 pounds had been made exclusively to the poor.” |
Dr. Brauer says: "The subjoined passenger list, compiled from various sources, is correct as far as it goes, but 29 passengers out of the 187 have not yet been traced " (To Dr. Brauer's list we have added details as given in Iwan, Um Des Glaubens Willen Nach Australien.
Especial thanks to Eric and Rosemary Kopittke who prepared much of this work, to the Queensland Family History Society for publishing it, and to the State Library of South Australia for making it available for you to read.
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