Some clarification is required concerning the surname of these three children who are buried in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery. It is variously given as Leitzo and Lietzo on their birth and death certificates. However, the version that appears on the death certificates of both of their parents and on the records of other children in this family is ‘Lutzow’. The confusion probably arose from the fact that this surname is written in German with an umlaut on the second letter, thus Lützow. To public officials, given the task of interpreting immigrants’ handwriting, this might have suggested the dot on the letter ‘i’. As Lutzow (with or without the umlaut) continues to be the preferred family spelling of their name, it will be used throughout this entry. It should also be noted that German immigrants, not uncommonly, adopted anglicised versions of their given names (Charles for Karl, etc.).

Hermina Caroline Louisa Lutzow was the second born of twins who were born at Rocky Waterholes (Rocklea today) on 21 May 1883 to Charles Herman Frederick and Augusta Henrietta Friedericke (née Schultz) Lutzow. The occupation of their father is variously given as labourer and drayman.

Hermina Caroline Louisa passed away at the age of six months on 30 November 1883. She was buried in ‘Grenier’s Cemetery, Cooper’s Plains’ on the following day in the presence of witnesses J Funker (?) and H Jarratt.

Wilhelmina Magdalena Lutzow died on Boxing Day 1883, a month after her twin sister’s death, and was buried in ‘Greniers Cemetery’ on the following day in the presence of witnesses, J Funker (?) and William Bruce.

Both children had been cared for in their illness by German-born Dr Albert Hubert Emmelhainz who had treated both Thomas Grenier Jr and Thomas Grenier Sr in their last days.

Charles Herman Lutzow, whose place of birth is given as ‘Ferndale Road, off Ipswich Road’, was born on 5 September 1887. He passed away on 9 June 1888 at the age of ‘nine months and four days’ and was buried on the next day in the Cooper’s Plains Cemetery. Those who were present at the burial in an official capacity were: George Alexander Grenier and, as witnesses, William Bruce and H Fieyer [sic].

Carl Frederick Herman Lutzow, the father of the above children, left Hamburg on 10 April 1878 with his wife Augusta Schultz—the daughter of Daniel and Ernestine (née Smerling) Schultz—on the 877-ton Sloman’s line Lammershagen (Captain HJ Pauls). Shipping records indicate that they were ‘free passengers’ aged 29 and 26 respectively and that they hailed from Schwartow, Lauenburg, Pommern. The travellers, having sighted Mount Warning on 3 August and Moreton Island on 4 August, reached the anchorage, Brisbane Roads, with a pilot on board on the evening of 5 August 1878.

Carl, the son of Johann and Wilhelmine (née Bork) Lutzow, died in the Mater Hospital, South Brisbane, on 12 April 1916 and was laid to rest in the South Brisbane Cemetery (4 108) on the following day. The children who were alive at the time of his death were: Alvina Augusta (b. 26 September 1878; d. 2 December 1954), Catherine Marie Louise (b. 19 November 1880), Emilie Henrietta (b. 23 March 1885), William Frederick (b. 4 July 1889), and George Adolph (b. 29 July 1893).

Charles’s wife, Augusta outlived him by many years; she was laid to rest beside her husband on 17 March 1936, the day after her death.