52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - # 1 - Helena Lindner

Note:  This post is part of a challenge set by genealogist blogger Amy Johnson Crow on her No StoryToo Small blog.

Helena Lindner is my 4th great Grandmother.  She was born in either Germany or Prussia about 1834.

I have not found her immigration records yet.

Helena’s marriage certificate lists her parents as Johanna Zobel & Gottfried Lindner, a digger.  She was married in her home at Creswick Creek near Ballarat, VIC on 19 May 1857 to John Heinrich von Tien, the son of Heinrich von Tien & Dore Lutsch. The marriage certificate is the only record that states her husband’s name was John Heinrich.  On the declaration section of the register, he calls himself Heinrich Von Tien.  Helena’s death certificate states her husband’s name is Charles Vonthein and his own death certificate states his name is Carl Vonthein.

On the marriage certificate, Charles / Carl / John Heinrich’s occupation is listed as a digger.  The officiating minister is John Peter Niquet, who I know married many of my Lutherans ancestors / relatives in South Australia.  The witnesses to the marriage are J Hermann Roster & Auguste Lehmann.

Helena died 5 March, 1878 in Albury, NSW.  The witnesses at her funeral were Christoph Westendorf & Johann Gottlieb Kalms (her daughter’s father-in-law).

This ancestor is special to me for three reasons:

• First, she is my most distant direct maternal ancestor.  We share the same mDNA.
• Second, her name, Helena, has been passed down my maternal line each generation, alternating between first & middle names.  Helena is my middle name, my mother’s first name, her mother’s middle name, & so on.
• Thirdly, she is a puzzle because I can’t seem to locate her before her marriage.  I can’t find her immigration records to Australia or her birth in Prussia / Germany.  From her death certificate I know that she was in NSW for 20 years.  Before this she was in Creswick Creek, a goldfield town in Victoria. I can only guess that she immigrated form Germany to Victoria  or from Adelaide, via Creswick Creek, to NSW.

I would love to know definitively that my Helena Lindner is the right Helena.  I would also like to know whether I have her correct parents & where in Germany / Prussia she was born.

Accepting the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge

I am taking up the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge set by Amy Johnson Crow on her No Story Too Small blog.

The challenge: have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor.

I’m a new blogger & have been collecting ideas for blog prompts.  Taking part in this challenge will give me plenty of blog post ideas for the year and will make me take a deeper look at some of the people in my family tree.  Organising information into some kind of narrative in this way will highlight what I already know about an ancestor & what I still need to find out.

If you want to join in too, go to Amy’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks article & add your name in the comments with a link to your blog.  Make sure your blog posts’ title includes the challenge.  Amy suggests something like “52 Ancestors: #1 Adah Young Johnson.

Amy will also be posting a weekly recap on her blog with links to challenge posts.

Like some other bloggers, I have also spent the last few hours reading the blogs of some of the participants.  I have found some great new blogs.  Thanks for this challenge, Amy!

Now, who will I start with . . .