Mr. Johann Georg GRAETZ

Johann George Graetz and his family migrated from the town of Chlastawe in Prussia, travelling along the river ways of Europe by barge to Hamburg. The barque Catharina was the 3rd of first wave German emigrants leaving because of their faith. They were part of the Old Lutheran emigration. His wife, Johanna Beate (nee Kwast) died on the journey so he arrived as a widower with four children aged 3-14 years of age. He remarried in 1841 to a fellow traveller, Eva Rosina Draebert and had two more children. He first settled in Klemzig and later moved in 1844 to the new township of Langmeil (now Tanunda), the 2nd settlement in the Barossa Valley after Bethany. Both parents are buried in St Johns Lutheran church cemetery without formal headstones. A memorial plaque was placed in the cemetery by the 1969 family reunion committee.