Our Ancestors
Johann Gottfried Arnold was born in 1790 and died 27th November 1850. He married Johanne Elisabeth Anders in 1819 at Neundorf, Silesia. She was born March 1797 at Ober Gorisseiffen, Silesia and died October 22nd at Bethel, South Australia. Elisabeth came to Australia with her third son Ehrenfried in 1855.
In 1815 the area of Silesia where our ancestors lived became part of a German confederation of 39 states, and was under Prussian rule. Silesia was a Provence of Prussia. Other provinces surrounding Silesia were Brandenburg, Posen, Poland, Austrian Galicia, Austrian Silesia, Bohemia and Saxony. The German confederation, meant that Prussia was being influenced by germanisation.
Religious prosecution, men being forced to enlist for war duties, drought and failure of the potato crops plus the scarcity of land to farm, were all factors influencing a large number of Prussians to emigrate to America and Australia.
Neundorf, Gorisseiffen and Lowenberg, Silesia
Neundorf and which was divided into Ober (Upper) and Nieder (Lower) Gorisseiffen were two small towns situated within ten kilometres of Lowenberg in Silesia.
These villages are now part of present day Poland and so their names haves changed.
Gorisseiffen, Silesia is now Plocski Gorne, Poland
Neundorf, Silesia is now Nagorze, Poland
Lowenberg, Silesia is now Lwowek Slaski, Poland.
Lyal Kupke visited Poland in October 1977 researching his own family history. He was asked by Margaret Arnold (Gottlieb Branch) to take some photos for the Arnold Family in Ober Gorisseiffen.
At the cemetery in Plocski Gorne, Lyal Kupke mentioned that there was a War Memorial plaque on which there were Arnold names