Subritzky/Körber family

The Subritzky/Körber/Spanhake/Wagener family were part of an extended family migration across the Australasian colonies of New Zealand, South Australia and Victoria. To say that it has a complex structure is understating, starting with the 'correct' name of the patriarch of the family, Romualdous Zubrzycki.

The earliest identified members of this family resided in Subate/Subačius/Subbath/Subocz, a town in Augšdaugava Municipality in the Selonia region of Latvia, near the border with Lithuania. In 1570 Gotthard Kettler, the first Duke of Courland and Semigallia, granted the Baltic German Plater family, the dominant nobles throughout southeastern Latvia, an estate at the lake of Subate, and Alt-Subbath was established. After the Counter-Reformation, the Plater-Syberg/Plater-Zyberk family converted to Catholicism, founding a mission with the intention of converting their serfs, resulting in the Lutheran residents moving across the lake in protest, creating Neu-Subbath.

Romualdous was baptised in 1785 in the Subate Catholic Church, the son of Ignatius and Chriztina Zubrzycki. The first issue is the ethnic or cultural background of the family as Zubrzycki/Subritzky would indicate a Slavic family while Romualdus is a distinctly Latvian name, though the use of the -us suffix may simply be the latinisation of of the name as the baptism records is, as is typical for Catholic records, written in Latin. Based on an 1816 letter held by the family from the Lüneburg Guild of Bricklayers to a Herr Behn in Subate, although whether Behn is from the Guild there or was Romualdus's former master is unclear, Romualdus served his apprenticeship between 1801 and 1804 and required proof of completion in order to be married. In his marriage record his name is recorded as both Romualdous Zubrzycki and Reinhold Subritzky, and he married Sophie Elisabeth Körber on the 16th November 1817. The couple had 4 identified children:

• Sophia Margaretha Dorothea 1818-1849
• Ludolph Johann Heinrich 1825-1884
• Heinrich Wilhelm 1828-1909
• Johannes Anton 1830-1912

and possibly one more, second in birth order, who died in infancy: Elisabeth.

Which is the end of the story for Romualdous/Reinhold as it relates to Adelaide Germans as he died in 1833, leaving Sophie Elisabeth a widow, and setting up the mass migration of the family from Hamburg in 1842 aboard the St Pauli headed for New Zealand. The family members migrating were:

• Sophie Subritzky née Körber
• her soon to be second husband, Heinrich Dieckmann
• her brother Heinrich Körber, his wife Maria Elisabeth and their two sons: Jurgen Heinrich Reinhard (1825-) and Johann Carl Joseph (1828-)
• her sons Ludolph Johann Heinrich, Heinrich Wilhelm and Johannes Anton
• her daughter Sophie Dorothea 'Doris', Doris' husband Frederick Spanhake and their infant son Otto

After living for sometime in New Zealand, the majority of the family left and travelled initially to Hobart and then via the Palmyra to Adelaide in 1845, including the NZ born daughter of the Spanhakes, Louisa Sophie Doris, but missing the infant Otto Spanhake who had died on the original voyage. Onboard Ludolph met Maria Sophia Christina Westphal who he later married.

In 1854, the clan, minus the Körbers, moved to Victoria in pursuit of gold, followed by a return to New Zealand by the majority of the family in 1860.