Family Reunion

Little Spring and I travelled to Victoria for a Hartwich Family Reunion for a week & a half and had such a wonderful time. We caught up with a couple of friends in Melbourne, before driving to Hamilton for the big event... here are some highlights:

The Reunion Cake - The Pauline Ship (which the Hartwich's came to Australia on)

The Hartwich Family Bible - from the 1500s

Little Spring and her 2nd Cousin (they only met for the first time that weekend and got along with each other so well!)

Poppa hanging out with his favourite little granddaughter!

First Picture Ever of the 3 Lusterman Generations!

A Final Picture of Little Spring with Nana & Poppa Before Driving Back to Melbourne

Little Spring Hanging Out with Her Cousins on the Spring Side

Merchandising Anyone?! (All these things were available for purchase in honour of the family reunion - the Family Tree Book, Mugs and Pens (the place mat was free!)). So, not a small event - there were 230 people at the dinner on Saturday night!

A bit of family history for anyone interested - Michael and Eva Hartwich (my great, great, great grandparents arrived in Australia (from Prussia) in 1846. They have 5,701 direct descendants (this figure would be higher, but we don't have all names). They settled in Bethany, SA, before moving to Hamilton in the Western District of Victoria (where I grew up!). All my Hartwich ancestors are buried in the Lutheran Cemetery, Hamilton:

Grave of my Great, Great, Great Grandparents and Great, Great Grandfather (Johann Carl Hartwich)

Grave of my Great grandparents (Johann Diengott "Dingo" & Anna Auguste Hartwich)

Grave of my grandparents (Carl Oscar "Charlie" & Doreen Mary Hartwich)

I'd seen the first 2 grave stones pictured before and thought they were probably some distant relative... little did I know that I descended from them! The book is full of history and I'm really enjoying learning about my family and reading some interesting stories! Fascinating, in fact!