All Together Now

The Wolter Family

someimes spelt Walter or Walther

Fifty year old Christoph Wolter and Christine, his forty-five year old wife, somehow got the idea to migrate to Queensland with their four children, and so they did. They departed Hamburg on the 13th of October 1865 and arrived in Moreton Bay February 14, 1866. On the record of the ship which took them to their destination, the Cesar Godeffroy under the command of Captain Adalbert Decker, they had come from a place called Sternthal (Sternenthal on the old map shown here) which means "valley of stars" in English.

At the time, Christoph and his eldest son, Friedrich, who was 19, were both written down as "workers" (Arbeiter), which, like for many others, could simply have been the category which qualified them to get passage according to Queensland Government requirements as to the type of migrant wanted in the new colony.
Even though Christoph and his family had been living in Sternthal before they went to Queensland, all of the records for the Wolter family are to be found in the church books of Hassleben which state that their residence was also in Hassleben. No mention has so far been found of any Wolter living in the surrounding villages.

According to those records, Christoph was a "Pferdeknecht" (a stable groom). At his birth, his father, Joachim Wolter, was the "Gerichtsschulze" (the Mayor) of Hassleben as well as being a "Bauer" (farm owner). Christoph's baptismal record also says that his mother's name was Louise (Schmidt) Wolter and that he was the fifth son. All in all there were thirteen witnesses to his birth, which was an unusually large number, except for people of greater importance.

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Many of the Wolter family members back in the Uckermark were rather well to do and well off. Something very unusual for the records of the place was that a very many of them were owners (Besitzer, Eigentumer) of properties, which was usually only the privilege of the nobility. Not only did they hold important positions, they were also in the possession of farms and lands. For instance, the Bauernhof had passed from father, Joachim Wolter, to his son, Christoph Wolter.

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In Queensland, the Wolters took to selecting land in the Parishes of Ferguson and Fassifern.

The blue area on the left belonged to F. Wolter and the green areas on the right to C. F. Wolter and Friedrich Wolter. The other coloured areas show some of the lands of close relatives.

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Christian Wolter
and Elizabeth Arendt

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Johann Friedrich Wolter
and Louisa Schemel

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Joachim Friedrich Wolter
and Louisa Schmidt

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Christoph Friederich Wolter
and Johanna Christina Mietz

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Johann Carl Friedrich Friederich Wolter
and Johanna Eliza Louisa Rieck

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Wilhelmina Louisa Wolter
and Heinrich Moller (or Möller)

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Ernestine Amelia Friederike Wolter
and Frederick William August Lobegeiger

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Carl Friedrich Wolter
and Friederike Wilhelmine Ernestine Rieck

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