Achance visit to the Millicent research centre of the South East Family History Group has uncovered a wealth of information about the local pioneering ancestor of Perth resident Tony Overheu.
Thanks to the efforts of SEFHG president Noel Boyle, much has recently been revealed about his great grandfather Fred Overheu who lived in Millicent for 20 years from 1874.
“The SEFHG is a treasure trove of information,” said Mr Overheu who is working on his autobiography and keen to give context to the activities of his forebears.
Not only did Mr Boyle source material from the SEFHG collection, he was able to escort Mr Overheu on a tour of relevant sites across the Millicent district.
Their stops included the Beltana homestead near the junction of Lossie Road and Williams Road which was built by Fred Overheu in 1878.
Also known as Lossie House, it is nowadays the home of a retired local educator and his wife.
Mr Overheu had earlier checked out the family history material held in the Bruce Towers History Room at the Millicent Library and it was recommended by library personnel he also call at the SEFHG.
He dropped by unannounced into a recent Saturday afternoon research session and found Mr Boyle was ready to help.
Among the records located by Mr Boyle was a copy of the baptismal register of St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church in Millicent.
It showed that Charles Overheu, his late grandfather, had been baptised in this church in 1883.
“I knew my grandfather well as he lived to the age of 98,” Mr Overheu said.
“He was a farmer; World War I soldier and the third child of Fred Overheu and his wife Matilda (nee Wehl).
“She was the daughter of Dr Wehl, formerly of Mount Gambier.
“My great grandfather Fred Overheu had come to South Australia as a 17-year-old in 1869 from Hanover in Germany.
“He spent five years learning the store-keeping craft in Adelaide in the drapery business of his uncle.
“He came to Millicent in 1874 to the general store in George Street which had been opened two years earlier by Julius Weidenbach and Franz Bevilaqua.”
The store is now the modern-day Ducky’s Surf and known as the Beehive Corner.
“Great grandfather became sole proprietor in 1878 and built Beltana in that year,” Mr Overheu said.
According to Mr Overheu, the first nine of their 10 children were born in Millicent and the last after they moved to Perth.
“One of the sons remained for a time in South Australia as he won the 1894 Vansittart scholarship to board at St Peter’s College in Adelaide,” he said.
One measure of the status of his trail-blazing ancestor was that he was one of the 12 men empanelled to inquire into the tragic shipwreck of The Geltwood in 1876 off the coast of modern-day Canunda National Park.
With a view to greater economic opportunity, Mr Overheu said his family left Millicent in 1894 and moved to Western Australia.
“I am interested in their life circumstances which prompted them to migrate,” he said.
“We know there was a banking depression throughout Australia in the 1890s.
“Perhaps there was the need for more farming land.”
Mr Overheu is grateful to Mr Boyle and the SEFHG for the assistance provided.
On the following day, Mr Overheu followed the family tradition and worshipped at the weekly service at St Michael’s Church in Millicent.
