Blumberg (Birdwood) / Family / South Australia

Lost and now found. Anna Maria ROSINA Hoffmann!

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; 
yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Psalm 16:6

As mentioned in a previous post regarding Johann Gottlieb Hoffmann of Blumberg, I had located details of his burial at Holy Cross, but neither a record of his wife’s death or any details of her final resting place.
Further research has provided some results. Land Title information of all things. The number of Anna’s and Johann Gottlieb’s and other Hoffmann’s interred at Birdwood and active in South Australia at this time made aligning families almost impossible.
What do the records show? Anna and Johann Gottlieb Hoffmann and their daughter Christiane  emigrated from Neudorf near Liegnitz, Silesia, Prussia in 1848 on the ‘Godefroy’ to South Australia.

Here the family took up land at Blumberg in the Adelaide Hills and lived out their lives. They had a son in 1855, and both of their children married and had families in the surrounds.
In various records, Anna’s maiden name is listed as Horn, Hornich, Hornig and even ‘Bauer’ in one. But in a number of places her middle name of ‘Maria’ has been added which separated her out a bit from all the other Anna’s.
We had no birth date or age. But we could assume she and Gottlieb were married around 1841.

After Gottlieb died in 1868, Anna was listed in a number of church records but after a while I could find nothing more.

This was until I stumbled upon her name ‘Anna Maria Hoffmann’ from Blumberg mentioned in an article in the SA German newspaper (Australische Zeitung) in 1889. It was only a couple of lines and also noted the section of land she had lived on. The SA Land Titles Office had some more information giving not only details of that transaction and mentioning her son as well verifying that it was the correct Anna Maria Hoffmann.  A little more searching and I found a note on the title saying she had died in July 1897 and the note gave her full name as being ‘Anna Marie (Rosina) Hoffmann’. There was a Church record of the burial of Rosina Hoffmann (the date of death was out by a day and the record was written in the wrong order, but in the correct year). The record had minimal information giving no birthdate, age, maiden name or any other information. Although there was a small note indicating she was the mother of ‘Gottlieb Hoffmann’ (who would be Albert Gottlieb). With this information we can match up the offical Australia Death record, which gives an age of 75 at death.

Great news is that the gravestone is still intact and gives her birthdate. Anna lived until she was 75 and saw both her children married and would have know many of her grandchildren.

It is my belief that Anna Maria Rosina married into our Hoffmann family and became quite a favourite young aunt being involved as godmother at some of the earliest family baptisms. Her husband died some 29 years before her, and although listed as buried at Holy Cross, Johann Gottlieb Hoffmann’s grave at this time remains unmarked and unknown.

"Hier ruhet unsere liebe Mutter" Here our dear mother is resting

Update (Dec’20):
SA historian Reg Butler has added extra to family circumstances. Johann Gottlieb Hoffmann’s first wife (Christiane nee Baumann) died in Hamburg before the voyage. He married widow Anna Maria Rosina Buhlmann  at Lobethal.  She had a son from her previous marriage – Paul Rudolph Hermann Adolph Buhlmann. It is likely her maiden name was ‘Horn’.

1 thought on “Lost and now found. Anna Maria ROSINA Hoffmann!

  1. It has been lovely to add to the story of my three times great grandmother, Anna Rosina Hoffmann and learn more about her life in Blumberg. I knew she had married Johann Gottlieb Hoffmann not long after arriving in South Australia and have visited her grave at Birdwood. I am descended from Paul Rudolph Hermann Adolph Buhlmann, her eldest son. His 3rd daughter Christina Louisa is my great grandmother.

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