Hamilton

My Great Grandfather, Charles Wagner (Wegener) Reynolds, was born in 1848 (approx) in London England to parents Adolf Theodore Gustav Wegener and Eliza Saunders.  Charles later adopted the english spelling of Wegener by changing it to Wagner. His name at birth, though, was Charles Wegener.

His father Adolf Theodore Gustav Wegener was born in 1819 in the city of Munster in what was then known as Prussia but is now known as Germany. Adolf’s father was William Edward (possibly Wilhelm Edvard) Wegener; an Officer in the Prussian Army. At this stage his mother’s name is not known. Adolf left Prussia at some stage (not known as yet) and settled in England where he married Eliza Saunders; the couple were married at St George the Martyr Anglican Church in Southwark London - just down from London Bridge. The couple continued to worship there after their marriage and it is highly probable that their son Charles and daughter Louisa were christened in this church.

After the births of their first two children, Charles and Louisa, Adolf decided it was time to leave England and made arrangements to set sail with his family to New Zealand in the early 1850’s. For reasons still unknown Adolf Wegener changed his name at this stage to Joseph Hartman and under this name he and Eliza arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, with their young family. He worked as a sausage maker and during this time Eliza gave birth to two more children John and Laura.

After a few short years in Wellington Adolf (now Joseph) and Eliza decided to make their move across the Tasman Sea to Australia. The family travelled across NSW living in towns such as Lambing Flat, Young, Forbes and Grenfell where son Alfred was born. They finally settled in Braidwood near Canberra where their child, Walter, was born.  Not long after Walter was born Adolf Wegener, my Great-Great Grandfather (by now Joseph Hartman), died. At this point in time no record at all, of either his death or burial, is available. He seems to have simply ‘disappeared’ leaving no hint at all as to where or how he died or even where he is buried. However it is well documented that at this time riots occurred in this region of NSW whereby Chinese gold miners were ambushed, assaulted and also killed by locals.  Maybe Joseph was caught up in these troubles and lost his life…?

However my Great-Great Grandfather, Adolf Theodore Gustav Wegener (Joseph Wegener), disappears at this point in time. His widow, Eliza, remarried quite soon after in 1859 to a George Reynolds. It is from this marriage that the name Reynolds comes into my family. My Great Grandfather, Charles, adopted the surname of his stepfather and the name Reynolds was used thereafter by his family.

Eliza married three more times after the death of Adolf  Wegener (Joseph Hartman). After George Reynolds died(?) she married a man surnamed Green. After the ‘death’ (?) of this man she finally married Thomas Self. I do not, at this stage, know her date or place of death.

Charles used the names ‘Wagner ‘ and ‘Reynolds’ for the rest of his life as did his children. He used the names Wagner- Reynolds on his marriage certificate; he also omitted details such as his birthplace and his parents names from his marriage certificate. Why he did this we do not know at this time, however, it may have had some connection with why his father, Adolf, changed his own name prior to leaving England for New Zealand and Australia. Some of Charles’ siblings chose to live under the name of Wegener though, rather than Reynolds.

Charles grew up in the region of Parkes/Forbes and eventually ran the first newspaper published in Parkes - The Parkes Independant - and was also active in the Masonic Lodge. He married the young Sarah Sophia Willis on the 10th July 1876 at her father’s property in Parkes. It was a ceremony conducted according to the Rites of the Church of England. He was also the subject of a courtcase afterwards whereby he had been charged with exploiting a minor, a 14 year old child, in his employ on the newspaper. Such a thing was not uncommon in his time though. He also owned a prize winning racehorse, Serpentine. His brother Alfred eventually moved to Condobolin where worked on that town’s newpaper as a Printer.

Charles and Sarah had five children between 1877 and 1888; twins were finally born to Charles and Sarah - Arthur Alfred and Walter Ernest - on December 28th 1890 but they died in infancy.

Charles Wagner (Wegener) Reynolds died, aged 44, on the 10th November 1892 in Parkes from tuberculosis after contracting a chest infection whilst working for his newspaper in very extreme cold and wet weather one night.  After losing her husband at such a relatively young age Sarah had to cope with the almost impossible task of raising five children on her own. Life was to prove very hard for her in the end.  Sarah (Willis) Reynolds died, aged 52, on the 17th September 1911 from cirrosis of the liver. She is buried, beside her daughter Alice Maud (Bloomfield), at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Reynolds, Saunders, Wegener (Wagner), Willis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.