The Finsters
From the Beginning of the 14th Century to the Present
LORRAINE DOOLEY is the eldest daughter of Meg Finster and Vern Cooper. She was educated at St Mary’s College, where she was Head Prefect in 1962. As a qualified teacher, she taught with the Presentation Sisters in Hobart and Launceston. She married Larry Dooley in 1969 and brought up their five children.
Prompted by a question from daughter Katie, she decided to write about what she knew of her family. Realising that there was more to learn, she explored and researched the extensive family and was very surprised to find the extent of the list.
Visiting the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office became a weekly event, until with the help of the ‘Scribes and Scribblers’ writing group, she has collected these stories:
- Building on firm foundations: the Cooper family in Tasmania, stonemasons, builders, and architects
- The Garde family in Tasmania 1837-2017: a new life in a new land
In 2014 she received the Marita Bardenhagen, Memorial Award for local history for her book, Building on Firm Foundations. In 2015 Lorraine received the Lilian Watson Family History Award for her family stories about the Cooper builders.
CARL HERMANN ARTHUR FINSTER (25 March 1865 – 21 February 1929), known as CH. Arthur Finster served in the German diplomatic corps as a consulate secretary and as a reservist in the Imperial Prussian Army. He was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class c.1908.
CH Arthur Finster was an author of a number of non-fiction books. He was a keen genealogist and from 1901 he appears in German genealogical journals relating to his consular postings and military career.
Arthur Finster occupied himself with the study of German history, especially Silesian history, as well as heraldry and genealogy. He co-founded the Central Office for Personal and Family History in Leipzig and the West German Society for Family History in Cologne, and was a long-time member of the well-known ‘Herold’ (Berlin) and ‘Roland’ (Dresden) scholarly associations.
For a number of years, he was a contributor to the Archive of Ancestry and Heraldry Studies.
Publications:
- Stammtafel der niederschlesischen Familie Finster Gottfriedscher Ast (Düsseldorf-Oberkassel, 1910) – English title: Family tree of the Lower Silesian family Finster
- Die Finster von Beginn des XIV. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart : eine familiengschichtliche Studie (Görlitz, 1921) – English title: The Finsters from the Beginning of the 14th Century to the Present: A Family History Study
- Nachrichtenblatt des Familienverbandes der Finster und Finsterer (Görlitz, 1923) – English title: News bulletin of the family association of Finster and Finsterer