Grüneklee to Greeneklee

From the village of Weende, Göttingen Germany to Australia 1856

Weende Village Hall

Introduction

The purpose of this site is to try and explain some of the History and some of the links between these surnames. We have received and found quite a lot of information on our surnames from many different people here in Australia, and from others in Germany and England. We would especially like to thank all those who have contributed, and hopefully will continue to contribute with new information as it comes to hand, and they are as follows:

Peter Greeneklee here in Adelaide South Australia, Stewart Gruneklee from Melbourne Victoria Australia, Colin Gruneklee from Lancashire in the UK. From Goettingen Germany we thank Tilman Grüneklee his family and friends in particular Renate and Wilhelm Grobe, and from Duisberg Dr Peter Grüneklee and Dr Eberhard Grüneklee. A Special thanks to Folko and Tanja Grüneklee and Folko's Father Max Dieter Grüneklee from the Village of Kaaks (near ltzehoe) for the Family Sign information.

The search started for our origins around 1999. Trying to find our past relatives has proved to be very challenging. As our surname changed from Grüneklee to Greeneklee and with no official records here in South Australia of the change, it took some time to unravel. Our search now is mainly to track three brothers from their village of Weende in Germany and their travels to Australia. The Brothers were Ernest Friedrich Grüneklee, Julius John Grüneklee and Heinrich Grüneklee.

The arrival details of the three brothers have now been confirmed as the 10th November 1856 on board the "South Carolina", into the port of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. These details were obtained from Julius Grüneklee's Application For Certificate Of Naturalization form dated 14th October 1909. A copy of this form was supplied to us by Colin Gruneklee and can be viewed on the "About Julius" page. Colin also had found a photo of the wreck of the "South Carolina" and that can be viewed at the bottom of this page. Once again many thanks to Colin for his ongoing research and support.

The arrival details as given on Julius's Certificate is at odds with written information stating that they all originally landed in Sydney, New South Wales sometime in 1852 and remained in N.S.W until Frederich and Julius moved to Adelaide in South Australia around 1864. There may yet still be a puzzle to be solved, as ships records indicate the South Carolina arriving in Victoria in Jan 1854, July 1855, Dec 1856, and Nov 1857.

Hope you all enjoy what you find here, and please pass on any new information that will help this site.

Rex Greeneklee. Adelaide South Australia.

( This refresh has new photos of our May 2014 trip through Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory.

(                           Updated 12 October 2019. Info on Links Page)

 Links to Ernst Reineke's pages added.(30th January 2013)

WreckMy Panorama