In 1961 I migrated from Germany to Australia. My name is  great in Germany but a bit of a pain in the butt in English speaking countries. We forever have to spell it. It is pronounced Hiss light ner. Hiessleitner is an Austrian name. Most names ending with Leitner are Austrian. In the last century our family used to live in the Dolomites, which is in Italy now, but was Austria then. We owned a property, on a hill side. All people living on the side of a hill were automatically called Leitners. Leitner translated into English means sufferer. Hills facing the sun get a lot hotter in the summer then land on the flat and therefore you suffer. My ancestors name was Mattias. As people had only one name then, it was combined with Leitner and ended up Mattiasleitner. As Mattias is similarly pronounced in Austrian as Hiess, of course we have to leave out the t and change m for h, somehow it ended up as Hiessleitner. As we are protestants and the Dolomite area was catholic, Mattias and family had no choice but to leave eventually and thats is how we ended up in Germany. They started a business making clay roof tiles in a little town near Nurenburg. They were so successful that they became one of the richest families there owning a big farm, forest and lots of land. But unfortunately by the time I have come along the fortune was gone..It is possible that soon our name will disappear as Rolf is the only one that will carry on with our name. In Germany our name should disappear pretty soon, as my cousins son has two daughters. Somehow this makes me sad.

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Leaving for Australia August 1961................................. Castle Felice (Sitmar Line)

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Engaged in 1966 and married in 1968

That's us today --we hardly changed-- haven't we?

Now a few words about my wife. She was born a Patterson ( nice and easy name) not far from Brisbane in a town called Nambour. During the war her father was sent by the Australian Airforce to England where he was a navigator in costal surveillance planes. He met his wife over there and three months later they got married. So my wife is made in England and born in Australia. I think she should have a dual nationality.

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The kids

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