George Heyer was Son of:-

     Johannes (or Jean) HEYER (b.? d.?)  Farmer and Lay Preacher,
     Presumably born in Melsheim, Alsace, France
     and
     Margaretha (or Marguerite) Schneider (b.? d.1885)

At age 18 he attended the Missionary College in Basel for 6 years. He was called to the Lutheran Church in Germantown (later named Grovedal), Victoria in 1868.

George Heyer was pastor of the Grovedale Lutheran Church (the Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul’s Parish) from July 1868 to August 1920, just over 52 years. Must be close to a record!

He was also responsible for the Lutheran Church in Ballarat for many years. (See “A Short Sketch of My Life to My Jubilee”)

Grovedale was formerly known as “Germantown” until WWI, when it was changed for obvious reasons.

Johannes and Margaretha had 3 children:

   George
   Jean             who died as a young man, unmarried.
   Marguerite  b. 22 August 1838 who m. George Ernst of Bosselshausen.

Johannes and Margaretha built the Heyer Haus in Melsheim in 1832 according to John Heyer.

John Heyer (son of Dr. Frederick Heyer, grandson of Johannes and Margaretha) bought Heyer Haus in c. 1972

Its address is 63 Rue Basse (acute) and tel no. 33-88-919088.

Sketches drawn by Robin Boyd dated July 1985 show an inscription “H H 1831” on the sandstone keystone of the arch over the cellar door, an “1829 H H” on a red sandstone water trough and  an inscription on the barn reading:

“DIESE SCHEUER HAT GEBAUT JOHANNES HEYER UND MARGARETHA SCHNEIDER 1834”.

Craig Bunton has translated this as:

"This barn was built by Johannes Heyer and Margaretha Schneider in 1834".

The word Scheuer is a word of antiquity - not used anymore, but basically means  table/shed/barn kind of place. The word used today is Scheune (pron. "SHOY-na")!

Clara Elisabeth KUMMER was born 18 October 1847 in a village near Chemnitz, near Dresden, Saxony. (During the Communist era of East Germany Chemnitz was called Karl-Marx-Stadt and is still shown on some maps as such.).

Clara emigrated to Melbourne c. 1868 with a German family as a seamstress. She lived in Melbourne with the family of the German artist Eugene von Guerhard prior to her marriage.

Clara sang in the choir of the Lutheran Church in Melbourne which is where she met George Heyer.

Clara’s father was Frederick August Kummer, a teacher. He had 2 children:
    Rev T Kummer - daughter Hannah d.c.1952 in Ulbrich(?)
    Clara Elisabeth

Large photographs of George and Clara Heyer, known to us as as Grossvater and Grossmutter, hang in the living room of "The Hut" at Anglesea and copies of these are shown at the head of this page.

Amy McGregor was a descendant of Robert Macgregor (1671 - 1734), known as Rob Roy or “the Robin Hood of Scotland”, the famous Scottish outlaw.