The Life of Kaspar Joseph Dreis

Kaspar Joseph Dreis was born about 1823 in Lorch, then part of Nassau. He was the son of Valentine Dreis and his wife Maria Anna (nee Dreis)

Kaspar married Magdalena Fuchs (1825-1854) before leaving for Australia. Magdalena appears to have died aboard the ship after they made landfall in Melbourne (see the Immigration to Victoria 1852-1879, Index to Inward Passenger Lists) and before they docked in Sydney.

Kaspar was employed as a cook at the Institute for Destitute Children at Paddington, NSW, (now called Juniper Hall by the Australian National Trust) during the early part of 1855.

His three children were enrolled in the orphanage. The youngest, Sybilla, died of diphtheria at the Institute. Kaspar and the two surviving children left the orphanage after the death of Sybilla in April 1855.

A sister of Kaspar, Clara Herrmann nee Dreis, appears to have travelled to Australia the next year on the Cateaux Wattel 1855. Caspar was said to be then residing in Sydney.

Kaspar and the children later settled in the Cooks River/Tempe area of Sydney and in 1858 Kaspar married German-born Margaret Elizabeth Bauer.
He died in 1880. She survived him by 18 years, dying in 1898.

The above information was supplied by Maureen Crawley. Additional information kindly supplied by Jenny Paterson from her Big Index follows.

His occupation was given as "Landmann" (farmer) on the Hamburg embarkation list (Kopittke transcription, where he seems to have been entered as J. J. Dreis, with the erroneous origin "Lorch, Württemberg". There is no information on his arrival at Sydney because he was an unassisted migrant.

He was accompanied by his wife and 2 children aged 2 and 3 yrs on embarkation.

There was another Caspar Dreis on this ship with wife Elise, who also emigrated from Lorch. It is difficult to be sure of who was who in this and subsequent records.

Spelling variants in records: Dreiss, Dries(s), Drice, Drise, Druis, Drees, Draes, Driss, Dress, Dryes, Treis, Tries, Tress, Thrice, Tryes, Troyce. (Jenny Paterson)

Listed in Wolf-Heino Struck's Die Auswanderung aus dem Herzogtum Nassau (1806-1866) (Emigration from the Duchy of Nassau), 1966. Date of his emigration advertisement in local newspaper was 11 Sep 1854. Name in this source is Kaspar Joseph Dreis and he was said to be emigrating with family.

Marriage record: Kasper J. Dreis m. 1858 Margaret Power [Bauer] reg. no. 1135 St George: [Margaretha Catharina Bauer, widow of Johann Adam Bauer who died on the Caesar 1855] (Jenny Paterson)

PROBLEM: birth records of subsequent children all seem to have parents Casper/Elizabeth; but in 1896 Caspar's widow was Margaret, with demonstrably the same children. (Jenny Paterson)

ANOTHER PROBLEM: there were two Caspar/Eliza couples having children the same time: Caspar Joseph and Elizabeth/Margaret in the Cooks River area and the Kaspar and Eliza in Parramatta. (Jenny Paterson)

Naturalization: 17 Aug 1860 vol.3 p.22 no.107 (memorial no.60/3120) Name: Caspar Dreis
Age: 37 [born circa 1823]
origin: Lorch, Nassau
ship: Singapore 1854
residence: Cooks River near Sydney.
(Jenny Paterson)

Death record: Jaspar Dries [Caspar Dreis] died 1880 at Newtown; reg. no. 3534 (Newtown); parents: unknown. (Jenny Paterson)

Kevin Quinlan's Index to Petersham Catholic Cemetery, 1999 (Burwood-Drummoyne FHG) contains the following entry:
Casper Dries d. 16 Jun 1880, aged 56; index no. BWl-3914 [i.e. born circa 1824]

Contact: -crawley- (at) -bigpond. net. au- (close up, remove hyphens)