The name is German and was originally spelt, in German, as ‘Schäche.’

The two dots above the ‘a’ is called an umlaut.  The umlaut modifies the pronunciation of the vowel, having much the same effect as adding an ‘e’ after the vowel would have on its pronunciation in English.

In Australia we don’t use the umlaut, of course.  So there has developed two different variations on how to spell it, they being; Schaeche and Schache.

I would suspect the Schaeche spelling would be the first modification, as it is representing the umlaut by adding the ‘e’ after the ‘a’.  But this makes it a little difficult to pronounce in English, and as the family came to Australia in the mid 19^th century when literacy levels would have been low, I can see how some families would have decided to abandon the ‘e’ and simply have ‘Schache’.

Many of the branches of the family today spell it Schache.  I do know of some that still spell it Schaeche.  I myself choose to spell it that way as my closest Schaeche ancestor was the daughter of Carl and Maria, the original immigrants, so it was spelt that way by her (Maria Rosina (II) who married Carl Hetzel).

No matter how it is spelt, the relationship still exists.  It is the genes that make us related not how we spell the name.

Anyway, in those days there was a SA recruit called Laurie Schache.  He played one very good year in 1991, then not so good in 1992 and was delisted.  ?  I dunno why, but no doubt could find out if I did some more research.

He unfortunately died quite young, in 2002.  He was married with young kids.  Very sad to hear.  His eldest son is now doing very well in junior football (photo included), so maybe we will hear from him in the AFL ranks very soon.

So, what is the point of all of this?  Well, Laurie is one of our Schaches, descended from the original immigrants, Carl and Maria.

More info: here (photo included), and here.

(Compare the photo of Laurie with his son, LOL, no doubting the paternity).

So I am beginning to upload bits at a time.  After all, that is the advantage of a website.  So I have uploaded by first bio info on Carl Gottlob Schaeche.  I have collated the facts that I do know, or almost know (some facts still need verifying) and I’ve included the sources.  After that I will interpret these facts to try and flesh out his history.

So stay tuned for more.

Here is his page: Carl Gottlob Schaeche.

Bye – need to do some exercise now.

FROM GERMANY?

So Silesia was part of the Empire, but was not actually part of Germany.   I call it “the old country” of Silesia because in the days before modern nation states and the unification of Germany it was a separate state, or what we might call today, “country”. It never became its own nation state, and has been constantly shuffled back and forth between Austria, Prussia and ultimately Poland.  But it was never strictly actually *part* of what we  might consider the nation state of Germany.  So when our parents and grandparents used to say our ancestors “were German” we have misinterpretated that to mean they were “from Germany”.  They weren’t, they were from Silesia, which was variously part of the Austrian/Prussian/German empire, but was not part of Germany.

GERMAN?

Silesia had a mixture of ethnic groups because throughout its history, dating back to the 9th century, it was constantly being invaded by different neighbouring groups.  As a consequence it has a lot of ethnic Slavs and a lot of ethnic Germans.  By the beginning of the 20th C, after all that time being part of the Austrian Empire and then the Prussian/German Empire, it had a lot of Germans in it.  After the two world wars, and especially after WWII,  a lot of the Germans were either relocated to Germany (during the Nazi era) or – as we would say today – ‘ethnically cleansed’ from the area (during the Soviet period), so that today it is probably more Polish than German.  Of course today the area is in Poland.

I will prepare more info and add some links.