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From: "Fay Mumme" <>
Subject: [SEQ] Divorce - John Surawski & Nathalie (nee Schafferius)
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 13:50:02 +0800


Hello list,

I have a quandary surrounding the above couple and wonder if someone has access to divorce or annulment records or indexes, and can help me discover if or when they divorced or annulled the marriage.

Both had hailed from the Danzig area, and they married on 5 Nov 1877, at St. Paul's Church (of England), Ipswich, but it looks like they only stayed together a few months. Both took up new relationships: Nathalie had her first child to her new common law spouse in Jan 1879 and John had his first child with his new 'spouse' in Sept 1879. Nathalie officially married her spouse, Ludwig FRITZ, on 9 May 1881, and John officially married his wife, Maria ZIECHOWSKI, in 1894 after having several children.

It would seem Nathalie and John weren't meant to marry, but descendants of both families have heard stories of some kind of pressure from parents to marry (she was not pregnant at the time). On the marriage certificate, Nathalie is named as a domestic servant and I thought she might have worked for the Surawskis and married one of the sons. At the time of the first marriage, Nathalie had only landed in Moreton Bay a couple of months earlier (Charles Dickens). It is uncertain how long John had been here: his parents landed with their younger children on 8 Jan 1873 (Lammershagen). John Surawski is not listed as a passenger on the Charles Dickens, so there went another one of my theories that they might have struck up a romance on board!! It is now believed they probably knew each other back home before migrating.

Would appreciate any help or guidance.

Fay in WA

RESEARCHING:
Diete, Schafferius, Teis, Wendland, QUEENSLAND, GERMANY.
Mumme Family website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~chousmith/
Schafferius Family: Family members, please apply to me for an invitation to join our private family site.

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