225th birth anniversary my 2xgreat grandmother, Anna Rosina Dorothea Schlinke
On 5 August 2026, Familysearch reminded me that it was the 225th anniversary of the birth of my 2xgreat grandmother, Anna Rosina Dorothea Schlinke, who was born on 2 August 1801 and baptised on 5 August 1801 according to the Hammer Borui church register, but the birthdate on her tombstone is 29 August. She was the only daughter of Johann Gottfried Schlinke, a property owner of Cicha Gora, and his wife, Rosina Dorothea, nee Janott, a midwife.
Cicha Gora is a village 5kms from Neutomischel (German name) (Nowy Tomyśl in Polish) in Posen (then in Prussia, now in Poland). The region is low-lying and is probably reclaimed swampland. The Polish nobility assisted Germans to make their homes in such areas and drain the swamps, clear the forests and establish small German settlements where these people occupied land at a low rental.
On 29 June 1823, Anna Rosina Schlinke was married to Johann Gottfried Kucke (who was 18 years old), the eldest son of Johann Gottfried Kucke and Rosina Dorothea nee Haemmerling of Gora at Borui Kościelna (German: Kirchplatz Borui). Marriage details in the Poznan Project indicate they were divorced (geschieden) and both subsequently remarried and had children. On 12 November 1829, Rosina Dorothea Kucke (with one daughter) married Alexander Felix Wilhelm (“Wilhelm”) Bradtke in the evangelical church at Cicha Gora with Pastor JFA Schulze officiating. They had 7 children in Posen and another on the ship to South Australia.
In May 1845, within a few years of the deaths of both parents, she left Bremerhaven with her husband and five children (another born enroute) on the Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel, arriving in Port Adelaide on 17 or 18 September 1845 (117 days after leaving Bremerhaven). The Heerjeebhoy Rustomjee Patel carried 262 German immigrants, a lot of people in a confined space for a long time.
The food during the voyage was basic, and supplied between deck (steerage) passengers as follows:
- Sunday 5/6 lb meat with dumplings or pudding and dried fruit with one bottle of wine per eight people.
- Monday 1/2 lb bacon with peas and potatoes.
- Tuesday 3/8 lb meat with beans in sour lentils.
- Wednesday 1/2 lb bacon with a type of sauerkraut.
- Thursday 5/8 lb meat with rice and potatoes.
- Friday 1/2 lb bacon with peas and potatoes.
- Saturday groats with plums and syrup.
Besides the above, every person received ½ lb of butter, 5 lb bread (Zwieback ) as well as ¼ lb sugar each week, as well as coffee and tea every morning and evening.
The steerage passengers had to supply their own bed linen, eating and washing utensils.
The Bradtkes were probably met in Port Adelaide by her brother Daniel Schlinke and taken to live with him in Bethany. Bethany was the first German settlement in the Barossa Valley with land first purchased early in 1842.
The Bradtkes remained members of the Bethany congregation of Pastor Fritzsche and when they moved to Gnadenberg (now part of Moculta), they became part of the Gnadenberg congregation who were followers of Pastor Fritzsche.
Rosina died at Parrott Hill, South Australia, within a month of her husband on 3 November 1879 and they were both buried in the Gnadenberg church cemetery by Pastor ED Appelt.
Philip R Mann
5 August 2026