8 July 1870 George Town Tasmania Australia Margaret Alice Sleightholm Lawrence Ruth

Ferdinand William Reisz, the eldest of seven children, was born at George Town on 8 Jul 1870 to Ferdinand Herman Alfred Reisz (1842-1887) and his wife Catherine McCarron (1846-1897) who married on 9 Feb 1870. Ferdinand senior, born in Rosenberg, East Prussia, was a telegraph engineer and was on the team that laid the telegraph cable from Low Head to Flinders, Victoria in 1869. Catherine was born on 3 Feb 1846 to Felix McCarron and his wife Catherine Edwards. She ran a boarding house in George Town around the time of the Exhibition in 1891-92.

Ferdinand junior was an electrical engineer. He joined his father on the cable station staff at Low Head, and seems to have remained there until 1889. He met his future wife (Margaret) Alice Sleightholm when she nursed him at the Launceston General Hospital. He was advised to move to a 'warmer clime' and in 1895 was appointed to the Colonial Post and Telegraph service in Brisbane as a telegraph engineer. Alice moved to Brisbane and married Ferdinand at St Paul's Presbyterian Manse, Spring Hill, Brisbane, on 25 Oct 1899.

The couple lived briefly in the Charters Towers district and in 1900 returned to Brisbane where their only child Lawrence Ruth (Laurie) was born in their cottage 'Quamby' in the riverside suburb of New Farm in Jan 1901. Laurie became a doctor; Alice died in Sep 1932 and Ferdinand moved to Rockhampton after retiring from the PMG in 1935. He spent his time cabinet-making and building crystal sets for grandchildren and state-of-the-art radios for his daughter and son-in-law. Ferdinand died on 28 Oct 1950.

Deborah Thorp, Ross Smith, Marion Sargent Jul 2007 & John Forbes Jan 2008