Forest Wood Norwegian Rosemaling & Craft

My family comes from Scandinavia, Pomerania (a province of Prussia), Silesia and England.

My English ancestors were amongst the earliest free settlers to come to Australia in 1801. Israel Rayner brought the family from England in 1801, settling in the Parrmatta district. His daughter Jemima, and convict (later ticket of leave) husband John Martin were a pioneering couple who lived in the Hawkesbury and Martins Creek, near Paterson, New South Wales. It is here that the name of my site and folk art is derived, in honour of these, my 7th great grandparents. Their farm at Martin's Creek was called Forest Wood.

My Scandinavian ancestry is primarily Danish, and going further back, also Swedish, Pommerania, and German. There is a Scottish and Norwegian influence too, but that has yet to be confirmed.

My Danish ancestors came to Australia from Jylland in Denmark in 1878, and settled in Rosevale, and Brisbane, Queensland. They were the Schuberts and the Gammelmark Pedersens.

My family pedigree on the Danish line can be traced back to Christen Nielsen who was born around 1620. Remarkably, they all remained in the same area for hundreds of years until my very bold great Grandfather Frederik Christian Schubert embarked on the "Lammershagen" to journey to Australia with his sister, Maria Louise Pouline Schubert. Tragically Maria, died of typhus before too long, but not before she had married to Anders Petersen ( another Dane from Fyn) and given birth to two sons, Peter William Petersen and Edward Theodore Petersen.

Many of these old Danish ancestors from Jylland hailed from the small town of Sonder Felding, and nearby Hoven and were teachers and clergymen. There is a substantial amount of information available in the "Lokal Arkiv"s in Denmark. The Hoven lokal arkiv (pictured here) has details on school and baptism records and you can find information about Peder Birk, a skilled schoolteacher in the parish.  You can also read  more about my Danish family below or on the Birk page of this site. (see menu above or click here http://forestwood.webs.com/birchbirkdanmark.htm)

The Pommerania side of the family (Schmidt) hailed from Hohenselchow, but my Great Grandmother was born in Pinnow, southwest of Stettin; Great Great Grandfather was a weaver in Zullichau, Zielona Gora, Silesia before he immigrated to Danmark.  Pinnow Hohenselchow, and Zullichau (Sulechow), Zielona Gora are towns now situtated within the boundaries of Poland. Click here for more information on this line of my family From Prussia to Australia

 

Clasonsborg at  Skarrild , Denmark 2004, where Great Grandfather Fredrik Christian  Schubert and his sisters and brother were born. Great Great Grandfather Wilhelm Schubert of  Prussia, worked  in the textile factory as a weaver.




This is Faergebo - purchased by 7th Great Grandfather Peder Pedersen Birch (Birk) in 1801. Peder was a parish clerk and (church school) kirke skole teacher. This is the oldest building in the Jylland township of Sønder Felding and is in an excellent state of preservation. The building backed on the river where a ferry boat operated until 1845.  Read more about the history of Faergebo, Sønder Felding and the old farm Nederby Gadestedet on the Birk/Birch family page.

Click here:http://www.freewebs.com/forestwood/birchbirkfamily.htm















Christian Fredrick's father was Frederick Wilhelm whom moved to Denmark once he finished his apprenticeship as a weaver. (The guilds required them to move out of town and work in other areas for several years). Industrialization was on its way and Fredrick Wilhem Schubert made his way to Skarrild in Jylland, Danmark, where he made his living working at a newly created fabrik, (textile factory) "Clasonsborg" marrying a local girl, Dorothea Marie Gammelmark Pedersen.

Fredrick Wilhelm Schubert made another extraordinary move to yet another country after two of his children, immigrated to Australia in search of a better life and land of their own. He and Dorothea settled in Brisbane, Australia with their youngest son, Gottlieb Wilhelm Schubert who was a saddler by trade. They lived for a time in Coorparoo and they applied for naturalization as soon as they arrived in Australia. They were successful in gaining the old age pension. Dorothea lived until 1922. She was 92 dying of "senility" at the Old People's Benevolent home at Dunwich, Stradebroke Island, Australia, and Freidrich was buried in Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane Australia in 1909 and although his grave is not marked by a headstone, it is easily found in a section where he overlooks the road up to Mt Cootha, one that I traversed at least once a week for many years in my youth. Little did I know Great Great Grandfather was watching over me as I passed by.

This is the little village of Hohenselchow, which lies near Pinnow, in Pommern, the former Prussian province of Pommerania, and East German state of Stettin, and now is part of modern day Poland.

It is where my great grandmother Emilie Augusta Schmidt, was born. She travelled to Australia as a very young girl with her family and settled in the Rosevale area, near Ipswich in Queensland.


It is my  hope to one day travel to see these villages and complete a full circle of travel of the globe that was started four generations ago.
Later Emilie, married Christian Frederick Schubert, a dashing Danish immigrant, whose father was a weaver from Zullichau, (sulechow), not far from Zielona Gora in Lower Silesia. You can read more about Clasonsborg here Schubert ( Gammelmark - Pedersen) History.

The Schmidt family settled in the Rosevale area and has many descendants throughout the Mt Mort, Lowood, Lockyer valley and Brisbane areas and involve family names such as Loff, Zahnow, Gehrke and Schmidt/Smith. Here are some photos of some of the Augusta Ferdinand Schmidt and Auguste Hermione Loff.










Pommerania has a convoluted history of settlement as does Silesia, which has been under the control of the Austrians, Germans, Moravians, Bohemians, Poles and Czechs at various times. Here is some information from Wikipedia on Zielona Gora which means "Green Mountain" or Grunberg, ( its old German name) and the region of Lower Silesia.



" In 1163 the emperor established Upper Silesia and Lower Silesia and granted duchies as fiefs to be ruled by Silesian Dukes. Many German craftsmen came to build cities and churches. The region received further influx of German burghers in the second half of the thirteenth century during the medieval Ostsiedlung.^[3] The settlement became a city with Crossener Recht, a variation of Magdeburg rights, in 1323.^[2] The earliest mention of the town's coat of arms is from 1421, although it is believed to have been arranged since the beginning of the fourteenth century.^[4] A document in the town archive of Thorn (Toruń) dating from before 1400 used a sigil with the name GRVNINBERG, an early form of the German name Grünberg.^[4]"

Most of Lower Silesia, except for south part of the Duchy of Nysa, became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 after the First Silesian War and was turned into the Province of Silesia, divided into the districts of Lower Silesia (Liegnitz), Middle Silesia (Breslau), and Upper Silesia (Oppeln).

Zielona Gora was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia by the 1742 Treaty of Breslau which ended the First Silesian War. The Prussians introduced religious toleration,^[6] leading to the construction of the Protestant parish church Zum Garten Christ from 1746–47;^[6] Catholic Poles were later discriminated against, however.The city's textile industry was booming by the end of the eighteenth century, and by 1800 large parts of the city walls had been dismantled to allow the city to expand.^[6] The textile industry suffered during the 1820s while adjusting to the Industrial Revolution and an import ban by the Russian Empire; The city's economy began to recover after many clothiers immigrated to Congress Poland.

During industrialization many Germans from the countryside moved to large industrial cities and large number of Poles came to German cities to work as well. The Polish population was pushed by Germanisation to rural villages,^[1] although some remained in the town contributed to the economic revival of the city.^[1] A Polish church remained functional^[1] until 1809 and a Polish craftsmen association (Towarzystwo Polskich Rzemieślników) was established by Kazimierz Lisowski in 1898.

Since 1816 after the Napoleonic Wars, Grünberg was administered within the district Landkreis Grünberg i. Schles. in the Province of Silesia. In 1871 it became part of the German Empire during the unification of Germany. English industrialists purchased some of the city's textile factories during the 1870s and 1880s.

By the beginning of the 20th century Lower Silesia had an almost entirely German-speaking and ethnic German population, with the exception of a small Polish-speaking area in the northeastern part of the district of Namslau, Syców and Milicz and a 9 % Czech-speaking minority in the rural area around Strehlen. After the First World War, Upper Silesia was divided between Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, while Lower Silesia remained in Germany. The Prussian Province of Silesia was reorganized into the Prussian Free State's provinces of Lower Silesia and Upper Silesia.

Did you get all of that?

Please contact me (see Links and Email page)  or sign my guestbook if you think you may be related to me.

Check the area of the family first.
Andreasson - Barslund Mark, Hoven, Denmark.
Bennett - Mungindi New South Wales, Brisbane.
Birk / Birch/Birkmose- Jylland Denmark, especially Sonder Felding, Skaelskor, Skovbjerg, Hoven. Skarrild, Sommersted, Arnborg,DK
Birkegaard - Peters - København, (Copenhagen), Hawks Bay, Norsewood, New Zealand
Carpenter - Baldwin - Wilberforce, New south Wales, Australia
Christensen/Christensdatter/  Christensen Birch Hoven- Nederby, Clasonsborg, Jylland, Denmark
Capon - Parramatta, Australia
Dodd - New South Wales - Australia
Esmarch Raekker Møllegård,  Saedding, Denmark
Friis - ølfgod parkish Nederby, Dk

Gammelmark ( Pedersen) - Skarrild, Gammelmark, Clasonsborg, Dk.
Graver - Jylland Denmark
Gregersdatter/Gregersen - Bejsnap Mark, ølgod parish, Dk
Hale - New South Wales, Australia
Hansdatter - Borris, Gammelmark, MInds,Sdr Felding, Denmark
Hansen - Jylland Denmark
Jacobsen - Gundesbol, Denmark
Jensen/ Jensdatter - Gaden Sdr Felding, Brande, Borris, Jylland, Denmark
Junker - Sonder Felding, Jylland, Denmark

Kramer/Frølich - Skelskor, Slagelse
Kjaerhus - Hoven, Dk.
Larsdatter - Gammelmark, Sdr Felding, Danmark
Laughlin / Laughlan - England, Maitland, Taringa, Clear Mountain, Australia also Locklin and McLaughlin/ McLaughlan
Leitzow - Prussia  Waterford, Queensland Australia
Loff - Hohenselchow, Kasekow, Prussia, Rosevale Qld, Australia.

Martin - Gostwyche, Martin's creek, Paterson, New south Wales
McLaughlin - England Australia (Qld) also see Laughlin

McManus - Ireland
Mortensen - Neder Burgårdes Mark, Denmark
Nielsen - Nederby, Sdr Felding
Nygaard - Hvollig Danmark
Olufsdatter - Gadestedet Sdr Felding, Dk
Pedersen / Pedersdatter - Tarp, Assing,  Nederby, Hoven, Sonder Felding, Skarrild, Clasonsborg, Egeslevmagle, Denmark, Stradbroke Island, Cooparoo Brisbane.
Petersen/Pedersen Birch - Agersø Danmark
Rayner -  England and Windsor, Parramatta, Australia
Robinson - Brisbane, Australia.
Rolls - Germany
Ross - Werribee, Victoria,  Western Australia
Russell -  Richmond River, Eureka, NSW, Brisbane, Australia (QLD) Wells, England.
Scheel - Gaden Sdr Felding
Schmidt - Hohenselchow, Pinnow, Pommern, Prussia, Gympie, Palmwoods, Wondai, Rosewood, Australia (QLD), Skarrild, Denmark
Schubert - Laidley, Mulgowie ( Burnside) Austrlai. Jylland, Denmark, Zielona Gora, Silesia Prussia  (now Poland).
Simonsen - Astrup Heded Danmark
Snoer - Seggelund, Dk
Sorensen - Gadehuset Sddr Felding, Dk
Spann - Ipswich, Australia
Speikner - Kasekow, Prussia Rosevale Qld Australia
Stevensen - Australia ( through Capon descendancy)
Thychsen - Skelskør, Denmark
Troelsen - Borris, JyllandDenmark
Tonks - New Zealand (Hawks Bay)
Zahnow - Rosevale, Rosewood.