In January this year I celebrated my 70th birthday with closer family and friends at our home in Tawa, Wellington. While I continue to minister as priest with Porirua Anglicans and assist with their food bank; I spend increasing amounts of time doing genealogical research and writing.

My primary assistant in all of this is the 'My Heritage' genealogical research programme I use. Currently I am having my DNA analysed to assist with verifying and extending family links. Please contact me if you would like to know more about this, or if you want confirmation or information about your branch of the family. My database currently records nearly 6,500 individuals. In addition to working with My Heritage, I also regularly refer to 'Ancestry.com' and 'Family Search' programmes to help extend my research.

This year I am focusing on my grandmother Theresa Wagner's ancestry. While several of her family visited Tasmania where she was born and met with relatives there in the 1970's and 80's, I have not had the privilege. I am currently planning to be there for two weeks in late October into November with Margaret my wife to meet descendants of her siblings and cousins - there are many of them. Both of Theresa's parents Philip Wagner and Caroline Hauke arrived in Hobart from Germany in 1855. Grandmother Theresa took the opportunity to visit her uncle William Hauke in Dunedin in 1915 and by the end of WW1 had married Henry Alve in the Manawatu, only returning to Tasmania for brief visits around the times of her parent's deaths in 1920 and 1931.

It is now less than two years before some of us will celebrate the sesqui-centennial (150 years) of the marriage of Carl and Maria Theresa Alve (nee Mollers) - our first New Zealand ancestors. They married on Valentines Day 1874 in St Augustine's Catholic church, Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley, Germany. We understand that theirs was part of a group marriage ceremony with several couples marrying at the same time - such was the life and busyness of the church and priest Father Schulte at the time. To mark the occasion I propose that we gather in Palmerston North during the weekend of 17-18 February 2024. Carl's and Maria's graves are in the Palmerston North cemetery and they spent their latter years in the Manawatu developing the Rangitane Alve farms. I propose to have written by then a fuller version of their lives than previously published.

Then in late March 1926 it will be time to celebrate 150years since the arrival of Carl and Maria Theresa with their daughter Anna Catherine who later married George Busch in 1898 near Featherston. I think it appropriate that we celebrate this anniversary in Wellington. More about that later.

Interest in Alve-related genealogical facts remains high as younger descendants give thought to their origins and whakapapa. I regularly field requests for information as I am sure some of you older also get. It is a privilege to know a bit about the family and to be able to share that. Occasional gatherings, like we had in both 1995 and 2015 in Palmerston North, keep the flame burning and us all at least a little connected....

Just to keep you on your toes, www.alve.org.nz has become www.alve.nz 

In fact if you continue to use www.alve.org.nz it will direct to www.alve.nz for several months, but when the longer URL sub runs out it will be gone. It's all done in the name of simplicity, we hope.
Cheers,
Terry

P.S. We will have online registrations for the Easter Day 2015 mini-Reunion available very early in the new year. This will include pricing info. Watch this space or, better still, join our eList and get news red hot, off the press.

Phillip Alve's home at 52 Raroa Road, Kelburn, Wellington was sold by his estate on 8th February, 2012. This sale ends a long association by the Alve family with this turn of the (20th) Century villa.

This house had been home for Phil since the early 1950's. After living there as a boarder initially, Phil bought the house either in the late 1950's or early 1960's. He initially continued using the home as a boarding house. Later he lived there alone and spent most of his retirement there. It was an ideal repository for his very large collections of books, records, papers and other bric a brac.

At some stage he also purchased the neighbouring property at 54 Raroa Road, which has been tenanted and remains so, owned by Phil's estate. This property is currently on the market also.

Shortly after he turned 90 in December 2008 Phil moved to live at the family home in Longburn, Manawatu before spending his last days in the Aroha Rest Home in Palmerston North. He died on 20th July 2012 aged 93.

52 Raroa Road has been purchased by John Waterson of Kelburn and others who are already rennovating it.

With the deaths during 2012 of Phillip Alve (July 20) , Noeline King (July 4) and Marion Karipa (October 12), five of Carl and Maria Theresia Alve's thirty six grandchildren are living. We extend our condolences to the close family of these three esteemed relatives who have lived long and fruitful lives before their passing this year. And we prayerfully wish surviving grandchildren and their families health and happiness.

Those grandchildren living are:

• Thelma Avery (98) - Palmerston North
  
• Ivan Alve (81) - Palmerston North
  
• Hilton Alve (86) - Taupo 
  
• Billy Alve (57) - Manawatu
  
• Alve Purdom (87) - Ashhurst
  

We look forward with Thelma and her family to the celebration of her 99th birthday on the 20th January next. 

The Alve grandchildren were born from 1900 (Bill Busch) to 1955 (William Alve). 

With the launch of this website and news blog, it may be that you would like to provide information about descendants (or ancestors) of Carl and Maria Theresia. The kind of information we think will be relevant to the wider family includes: 

• news of births, marriages and deaths
  
• obituaries
  
• awards and achievements
  
• requests for family information
  
• notes of historical or genealogical interest
  
• etc. 
  

Written and photographic information is welcomed. When you provide information please ensure that you give us permission (electronic message is ok) to publish, if it is yours to give. Otherwise please indicate who "owns" the material so we may contact them. If your information is on the web please indicate where - again we will require your permission to copy it to this website. You may prefer that we just provide a web link to your material.

Finally, while Google will do its best to let relatives and others know that this website exists, we are somewhat dependent on word of mouth (so to speak). If you have a website or Facebook or Twitter accounts appropriate links are valued by us. In return we are open to linking to you.

Let's do what we can to keep in touch with one another.

Terry Alve