The Hewitt, Alexander, Vieritz & Sarow Families in Australia

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My Ancestry

VIERITZ

Vieritz Names           Vieritz Submissions

Wilhelm Vieritz was born in Schonfeld Ukermark, Prussia.  He married Charlotte Engel (Engle)  in 1838 or 1839, in Schonfeld by Nechlin, Prussia. They were the parents of six children.  The first of their children to come to Australia was Fredericke Charlotte.  She travelled with her new husband on the ship, "Johan Cesar", departing Hamburg on October 10, 1865 - arriving Brisbane on June 2, 1866.  Next to emigrate was was Wilhelm & his wife, Wilhelmine Zimmermann, on the ship "Humbolt", departing Hamburg on June 30, 1873 - arriving Maryborough, Queensland on October 29, 1873.   Charlotte, now widowed,  then decided to join her children in Australia, and with her youngest son, Frederick, she departed Plymouth on November 5, 1880 aboard the ship "Earl Dalhouse".  Charlotte found the trip to be too much and she died at sea on November 14, 1880 in the Mid Atlantic Ocean.  Frederick could do nothing but continue his journey to Australia after the disturbing burial at sea of his mother.   Frederick related to his family upon arrival in Australia, his distress at Charlotte's burial at sea.  Her coffin had not been weighted heavily enough, and it floated until out of sight of the ship.  On July 28, 1885, two more of the children departed from London with their wives.  They were Christian Vieritz & Augusta Zimmermann and Carl Frederick Vieritz (my great grandfather) and his second wife Caroline Gorkow.  His first wife, Augusta Arndt had died about 1880.  They travelled on the ship "Mekara" and arrived in Brisbane on September 22, 1885.  Carl & Augusta had one sone, Charles Robert Vieritz, who elected to stay behind with relatives when his father and step-mother emigrated.  He eventually went to Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.  The last to leave Prussia was Wilhelmina, along with her husband, Ernst Rudolf De Vantier.  They departed on the ship Roma, arriving in Brisbane in 1887. 

William Ernest Vieritz (my father)

Born January 15, 1915 at the beginning of WWI to Ernst Hermann Vieritz & Sophie Wilhelmina Ernestine Sarow/Vieritz in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.  He was the second youngest of four children; Dorothy Vieritz/Hill (d. September 16, 2001), Agnes Vieritz/Watson, and Arnold Vieritz.  After the onset of WWII, William enlisted in the AIF. becoming  a member of the 2/26 Infantry Battalion, out of Queensland.  He was posted to Singapore, and soon after his arrival there,  he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and spent most of his internment in Changi Prison.  He worked for a time on the infamous Burma-Thailand Railway.   After his release he returned to Queensland and on March 18, 1946 he married my mother, Lucy Elsie Hewitt, at Kogarah, NSW, Australia.  He was a baker/pastry cook  and operated a cake shop at Carrs Park, NSW for a period of time before moving to Ingleburn, NSW, where he resided until his death on July 16, 1976 at the age of 61.  William and Lucy had four children, three of whom are living today.  Yvonne Janice Vieritz (January 7, 1947) - Brenda Gail Vieritz/Davies (March 10, 1949) - Gavin William Vieritz (October 9, 1951) - Rosalie Sharon Vieritz/Williams (June 23, 1955 to February 7, 1998).  William's ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Leppington, NSW, Australia.