Spemann Family Collection
This superb photo from Christmas Day 1930 shows the Gebauers in quite a formal gathering at the family home in Lepea . Through marital arrangements the family has taken on a stronger German flavour . Richard on the left is accompanied by his wife , Sophia Fruean , and their two children . Sophia was a third-generation descendant of Charles Fruean and Meleane Toluma ’ anave , of Lefaga . Fruean was a German shipwright who called into Lefaga Bay for supplies and decided to stay . Sitting beside Richard and Sophia are Robert who has returned from Germany with his wife Olga ( nee Wolny ), from Rissen , Hamburg , and son Karl . The three adult Gebauer children at the back on the left are all single but Etesa ( third from the left ) will soon marry into another German family , the Spemanns , a connection worth exploring in some detail in the next few pages because of the Spemanns ’ compelling ‘ back story .’ Emma and Hugo are sitting in the middle , the Grapengiessers are next , and on the right are Acey and Rudolph Gebauer and their children Ernst , Emma and Linda .
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