William Schindler New Zealand
KiriSch
I'm searching for any information on my great great-grandfather William Schindler who came to New Zealand in the Late 1800 I'm not sure from where thou. He Married Minnie Johnskie and they had 6 children George Edward ( my great-grandfather ) William Fredrick, Percy Staurt, Cleardon Trevas, Florrie Minnie Adeline and Adelaide Frances. Most of them stayed in New Zealand I'm not sure about the girls as I'm finding it hard to trace them, Either my GG grandfather or great-grandfather built the Halcombe Church near Feilding NZ which was burnt down in WWII because of their last name and where they came from after this he dropped the C from our name to have nothing to do with this link the rest of the family now go by Shindler but my Grandfather put the C back in. This is all I really know what I'm really after is where my GG grandfather actually came from and his parent any help will be much appreciated :)
by KiriSch
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Contact | Subscribe | Block this user on 2012-09-04 04:28:10
KiriSch has been a Family Tree Circles member since Sep 2012.
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ngairedith on 2012-09-04 05:16:32hi KiriSch,
I think they lived in Halcombe didn't they?
ngairedith on 2012-09-04 05:47:06ok, so far ...
William was possibly from Germany and a Lutheran
Go to this link for a great read, which I'm sure you will get a lot out of (I certainly did as some of my ancestors were also settlers of Halcombe, Feilding etc and I didn't know about this fire. I will now be doing more research on it)
It is about the times in Halcombe during your great, grandfather's day and about the hostilites towards the German and Scandinavian settlers there during the First World War. Even the children suffered ... "Then, in the early hours of 2 July, and allegedly for a ?25 bet, someone burnt down the Rongotea Lutheran parsonage. Due to the constant persecution of Lutheran children by other children, the parsonage had been moved away from the State school, and was being enlarged for use as a Lutheran School. Even so, the intention had been to teach the children in English. Work was virtually complete at the time of the fire"
The Halcombe Church was burnt down in 1917
... "Doubtless as a result of the case, in the early hours of ]16 July 1917, arsonists burnt down the Halcombe Lutheran Church"
The story at the above link explains why the Church (Churches actually) was burnt
ngairedith on 2012-09-04 06:00:23CHAPTER 3
... "In addition to businessmen and ?tall poppies?, agitators also singled out the Lutheran Church, with its obvious prominence in German communities, for special ill treatment. For example, the Evening Standard of 12 April 1917, expressed surprise at the freedom of the German residents of Halcombe and Marton:
?(The) marvel is that the authorities permit Germans meeting en masse and holding services in German, as was done at Halcombe at Easter. The extraordinary and mysterious part of the business is that an advertisement was published stating that services would be held in German in the morning, and English in the afternoon, when intercessory prayers would be offered up for ?our soldiers and the British army.? In view of the fact that the participants of this service were Germans, the Halcombe Germans need not be surprised to learn that not a few people have interpreted the advertisement to mean that at the morning service the prayers would be for the German soldiers [the advertisement specified ?our soldiers?], and in the afternoon, when the service was in English, the prayers would be for the British army."
ngairedith on 2012-09-04 07:25:58the Lutheran in Halcombe built their first church in 1878. So your great, great grandfather was obviously there prior to that OR he was one of those who rebuilt it
KiriSch on 2012-09-04 15:33:09Thank you they live down or near Marton not to sure where My great grandfather is burried down there some where grrr I've lost a book which has this info in so I'm in the process of turning my house upside down. I only got this when our library had a free ancestry month, I've tried looking on Ancestry.com but it's kind of hard when I really don't know what I'm looking for and it really only has the eletrol roll, there is a book about Marton that has reference to my GG grandfather or Great grandfather and the church both where also firefighters down in Martin also. When looking at the electrol roll they Start off as Schindler then I can't find then but if you search Shindler they all come back. Thank you for this info as it will help me track where they are buried hopefully I found Minnie in a cemetery down in Wellington and George in Marton I think it was. Once again thanks so much, I never had anything to do with my fathers side of the family and have only started searching since my grandfather Terrence passed in 2010 which I went to and found that my grandfather only told his Brother about my dad and us 2 weeks before he passed, but one good thing come out of my grandfathers passing I finally got back in touch with my father have been to Australia and met my younger sister now 22. So everything is slowly coming together.
KiriSch on 2012-09-04 15:44:01I may have got which war it was wrong too, I think it was WWI, but ill have to find my book.
KiriSch on 2012-09-04 16:16:08I have just found my GG Grandfather William in Hunterville in 1890 he was Naturalised on the 7th October of this year so now to find how long he had been in NZ for Hunterville is down near Marton/Feilding is it not I was also to that the Hunterville Museum has a lot of info on this time. Most of the electrol roll places him in Patea, Waitotara, Rangitaikei, Taranaki area which is all down those ways.
KiriSch on 2012-09-04 19:09:55Wow thanks ngariedith that was an awesome read no wonder my grandfather dropped the C out of our name it was a bad time to live having being of German decent as well as the others my uncle said it was the Halcombe Chruch that they had conections to and helped to build, he was from Germany and born in Breslau so my search continues its getting more and more interesting.