The primary focus of my genealogy research is my direct ancestors and their immediate families. The surnames of these families in Australia are BALLARD, DAU, LOBEGEIGER, MOLLER, PRENZLER, RAABE, RYMAN, SCHNEIDER, SCHULZE, TOPP, WINDOLF, WOLTER, and ZILLMER. Complete details of the arrival of my ancestors in Australia are contained in this document. For this component of my research I attempt to use high quality data based on primary sources. I have 2 secondary goals for my research. The first of these is to contact close and distant relatives and to share family treasures such as histories, stories and photos. The second is to document the early German settler families of the Fassifern and surrounding districts and to a lesser extent other areas of South East Queensland. For the later 2 goals I rely heavily on secondary sources and am indebted to the generous family historians that share their research.

If our families are connected I would very much like to hear from you. I'm interested in hearing from people who are actively researching and am always excited to hear from family and to share information. If you're new to genealogy I'm also happy to help with my experience and tips on researching early German settler families.

Even if you are not researching your family, if we are related I would enjoy hearing from you. Contacting me will allow me to confirm our connection and to share information on our living relatives. I'm always happy to look at branches of the family that I currently have not followed and enjoy helping people find out how their ancestors reached Australia.

When I was a new researcher I made the common mistake of not recording the sources of information. I hope I have corrected this error and most of my data comes with a source, especially when it is a secondary source from another researcher's hard work. If I have made any omissions please let me know. Genealogy can be expensive especially collecting primary sources such as vital records. I'm happy to share copies of certificates, photos and any other sources of data. I'm also very happy to receive the same.