Johannes Matthau Dilges was a blacksmith and married Christina Zeis, they emigrated to Sebastopol, Victoria in the mid 1800's. Johannes had his smithy in Sebastopol and was also a publican during his life.
For many years his family were tenured farmers, which means they worked the land they lived and could bequeath it to other family members when they died, but they did not own it. After the Napoleonic war all the tenured land was taken back by the government and many of these farmers emigrated away from their homeland to various parts of the world. I am interested in information about the Dilges and other families who came from Neiderweisel in Germany.