The value of a blog
The finding of Daniel Schlinke’s 1848 Naturalization Certificate
This paper was presented to the San Diego Genealogical Society GIG (German Interest Group)’s Annual Bring Your Brick Walls to Class and 2025 Successes on 21 January 2026 1:00pm PST (San Diego time) (or 22 January 2026 7.30pm CDT (Adelaide time).
2025 was a year full of family history successes for me built from solid research over previous years. But this finding was the cream on the cake.
On 4 February 2025, I received an email from Mark Cody, a man as then unknown to me, stating:
I don’t know if you are in South Australia or overseas [actually the next suburb], but I thought I should contact you regarding a document of your ancestor Daniel Schlinke.
My father spent much of his life collecting rare documents and autographs dating back to the 1600’s, almost all related to the UK and the Colonial era. It is a vast collection with tens of thousands of documents.
For the past month I have been sorting the collection into various sections such as prominent politicians, Kings and Emperors, Scientists, Artists etc. As I am retired and in my late 70’s I was thinking of selling the collection through a reputable manuscript auction house in the UK as my children, grandchildren are not really interested. I anticipate the disposing of the collection in a few months’ time.
Yesterday as I was nearing the last of the main folders, I discovered the only South Australian document in the collection. It is on vellum and is the Certificate of Naturalisation of Daniel Schlinke signed by Charles Cooper, Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia on 3 May 1848. How it ended up in a UK collection mystifies me but reading your story of your ancestor it all makes sense!
I have attached a photo of the vellum document which was folded previously. I have had to flatten it out with some black plastic pieces!
I hope it is of interest to you.
Well, it surely was of interest.
The document reads:
I, Charles Cooper, Esquire, Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, do by way of the power given to me in this behalf, by the Ordnance passed on the twenty-fifth day of April one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven for the naturalization of certain persons, natives of Germany, mentioned in the said Ordnance, hereby certify that Daniel Schlinke described in the said Ordnance as of Albert Mill, miller, one of such persons, did this day take and subscribe, in my presence, the oath appointed and set forth in an Act passed in the Session of Parliament of the 7th and 8th year of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, entitled “An Act to amend the Laws relating to Aliens”, and that such oath was administered and received by me as required by the above-recited Ordinance.
Given under my hand this third day of May one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
To put this document into context, the colony of South Australia was established by the British on 28 December 1836 and over 300 Germans took an oath in May 1839. It took another 9 years for them to be naturalised.
To find who Daniel Schlinke was, Mark googled the name and was directed to my blog at www.philipmann.com.au.
Mark was happy to donate the certificate to a suitable organisation. We decided that the Barossa Museum at Tanunda was a suitable repository.
Plans were made for a formal handover at the Barossa Museum, as part of an event organised through my local German genealogy interest group, the Germanic and Continental European Special Interest Group (GCE) of the South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society (SAGHS). We also invited direct Daniel Schlinke ancestors we were aware of. The Barossa Museum, to this time had no other Naturalization Certificates from their presentation to 234 Germans in May 1848.
24 of us, including 4 direct descendants, met at Langmeil Church in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley, of which Daniel was an early Trustee. On Saturday 17 May 2025, Mark and I presented Don Ross, Barossa Museum Secretary, with the framed Naturalization Certificate.
This occurrence shows the value of a blog of your family history research. My blog is at www.philipmann.com.au.
Philip Mann
22 January 2026.