The surname CORIDAß and its variations are very rare on a worldwide basis. CORIDAß is most common in Germany, but even so, there are only about 16 entries in the current phone book with many of these located in the Wiesbaden area. The town Naurod (see above) is close to Wiesbaden. In Australia, there are a few CORIDAS families - all of whom link back to one CORIDAß family (and probably to one son only) that emigrated to Tasmania, Australia in 1855. It seems likely that all CORIDAß families link back to the same 16th ancestor who is said to have been a bullfighter from Spain.
The Australian lines arise from a CORIDAß family that emigrated in 1855 to Hobart, Tasmania, from Dasbach which was a small town near to but now incorporated into Idstein, which is near to and almost due north of Wiesbaden. The town Naurod is between Dasbach and Wiesbaden.
Their sail boat - the 'America' left Mersey, Liverpool, England 15 April 1855 and arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, on 23 July 1855. (The baby died 25 Apr 1855 during the voyage) The wife’s maiden name was SCHMIDT and her father was William SCHMIDT. There were SCHMIDT families on the same boat but there is no evidence of any family realtionships to these SCHMIDTs.
After the family arrived in Tasmania, two more children were born in Hobart - Helena and Julia CORIDASS. Helena CORIDASS was Gail's great grandmother. Julia CORIDASS married William BASTER and had nine children, mostly born at various gold mining areas. She must have suffered extreme hardship and privation in those early days, especially when she was the second woman to arrive in the wild mining town of Cue. Wilhelm altered his spelling of the surname to CORIDAS from the CORIDASS used by his father and siblings , probably to reflect what he believed to be the correct anglicization.
Tracing this family, in Australia, was initially difficult as although the family were noted as being able to read and write when they emigrated, they obviously had difficulty in having their German accents understood and the various Tasmanian Registry entries use a large variety of interpretations. In addition, one birth (Julia CORIDASS) has been mis-indexed as the daughter of the mother who registered the following birth. The greatest problem however was their apparent tendency to use nicknames, with two of the daughters, I believe, calling themselves after their young sister, Caroline, who died soon after arriving in Tasmania. The father and the son both called themselves Peter, making the assignment of relationships difficult. The links as shown in this family tree are based upon the feeling that where there was evidence of a stable marriage, yet a birth was registered that might involve that family member or another for whom there was evidence that they were not / no longer in a stable relationship, then the birth was assigned to the second member. The relative ages of the parties were also considered. Nevertheless, these assumptions may be incorrect and hence some of the family links might not be as shown.
The parents did not gain the wonderful new life, that one assumes they sought by emigrating from a region of Germany that supposedly had plenty to offer in the mid-nineteenth century, to Tasmania. Their baby died aged 6 months during the voyage from England to Tasmania and 6 year old Caroline died 18 days after they landed. The father was a ploughman on the emigration lists and is not listed on the arrival register as having gained immediate employment. In Tasmanian registrations, his occupation was given as "labourer" and later as "coachman". When Julia CORIDASS was born, the family was living in a poor part of Hobart, close to streams heavily polluted with the effluent from the local abattoir. The parents seem to have separated with the mother going to New South Wales to live with her daughter Helena and son-in-law George FARRIER while the father had two daughters to Hannah JONES and later died in the New Town Charitable Institute, New Town, Hobart, Tasmania. Many babies of the next generation died shortly after birth. Helena, who returned to Tasmania with her family shortly before they emigrated to New Zealand, lost her 10 year old son to rheumatic fever whilst there. Those family members that did eventually succeed seem to have done so only after leaving Tasmania.