Letters
An important project is the future publication of Wendish emigrant letters sent from Australia to Lusatia during the nineteenth century. The first of these letters were obtained by Kevin Zwar through the efforts of Pastor Siegfried Albert in Saxony. Some were discovered by George Nielsen and Trudla Malinkowa during their research in Germany. These letters have been translated into English by a number of people in Australia, including Dr Thomas Darragh who has contributed two examples for us to publish.
Agneta Stephan
Agneta Stephan née Kaiser, or Hanza Stefanowa née Khjezor in Wendish (c.1813-91) arrived in Australia aboard the Pribislaw in February 1850 with her husband, Johann. After eventually settling at Gnadenthal near Penshurst in Western Victoria, she wrote a letter in 1857 to her brother in Germany, which was published in the Bautzen Wendish newspaper Serbske Nowiny. Agneta Stephan's letter, although incomplete, is one of the few written by a woman to have survived.
Andreas Kaiser
Andreas Kaiser (1827-1912), was a Wend who arrived in Melbourne aboard the Pribislaw in February 1850. At the time of writing this letter, he had settled on land at Hawthorn and had also purchased land at Doncaster.
Johann Zwar - The Helene Journey
Two letters describing the Journey of The Helene to Australia in 1851 (These letters were published in the Wendish newspaper Tydsenske Nowiny in 1852. In 1977 Siegfried Albert photocopied the letters in the archives in Saxony and sent them, along...
