Peter mentions Christian Lamsfuß who was born in the late 1600s. Me married Catharina von der Höhe and together they were the grandparents of Johann Wilhelm Lamsfuß (1759-1811) who married Catharina Gertrudis Kemmering (1763-1829). These two - Johann Wilhelm and Catharina Gertrudis - are Peter's and my most recent common ancestors (MRCA). They seem to have spent their whole lives in and around Hückeswagen. Another view of Peter's ancestry to our MRCA is this, If you click on the image you may get a larger view of this ancestry chart.

Peter's ancestry chart above also depicts our most recent common ancestors (MRCA) - Lambsfuß=Kemmering - in the context of his wider maternal family tree:  I find two things notable about this.

1. Anna Catharina Kemper nee Bosbach (b.1790 Kürten) is likely a close relative, if not the sister, of Wilhelm Bosbach (b.1792 in Kürten). Wilhelm was Carl Alve's grandfather - the Carl Alve who came to New Zealand in 1876
2. Peter's grandfather, Peter Johann Scheurer (1879-1916), was killed in France fighting during WW1.

While I do not know a lot about Peter-Jörg, I do know that he was born in Hückeswagen, Germany and I understand he has been a prominent Jurist (Lawyer). A Google search on his name highlights his involvement as a former Vice President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV).
​At the age of 80 we might assume he is well into his retirement now.

​Terry Alve

This weekend I have been working on my wife's DNA matches in our MyHeritage online geanealogy platform. A very helpful, graphical and powerful tool inluded is the Autocluster report. Margaret's is above. The coloured squares indicate groups of people who share a common ancestor (or ancestral line) with Margaret. Many of them are 4th or 5th cousins. In this report, 103 relatives have been assigned coloured squares. Usually the most accessible matches are towards the top and correspondingly the least accessible are at the bottom.

However, the second to last (dark blue) cluster in this report. highlighted with a yellow circle. gave me a surprise and yielded a new, confirmed match this weekend.

The blue squares contained the info below in the associated Autocluster spreadsheet...
​

The figures in red relate to this new confirmed match. In the info available, this match was described as a 3rd or 4th cousin. The figures are:

• ​60.71cM (centimorgans) is the match size in terms of shared DNA - usually around 4th cousin territory.
• 225 are the number of ancestors available in the family tree attached to this relative.
• 18 describes the blue cluster - 18th from the top.

Upon closer inspection of this relative's available family tree I eventually recognised a couple who are in Margaret's tree also. Alhough linking relatives were absent from both! When I confirmed this I was able to deduce that the relative in question was a third cousin of Margaret's mother Helen, although their birth years are quite different: Helen - 1917; match person - 1955! In other words the 'match' is Margaret's third cousin once removed - 3C1R. 

A corollary to this discovery, on the basis that the three relatives indicated are in the same line, is that most likely they are all descended from the same ancestral couple - McMillan=Fraser. I deduce this on the basis that their matching DNA 44.97, 48.64 and 60.71cM means they are in same match territory.

Whereas I had previously doubted the likelihood of the Autocluster report lower level matches yielding good results, I move forward in my genealogical investigations confident that there are surprises to be found anywhere and everywhere as we closely examine the data and the various reports that help me to analyse it!

​Terry Alve

I use the MyHeritage online genealogy platform to assist my family research. This includes using the DNA matching facilities provided. In the last few years massive advances have been made in connecting personal DNA with that of relatives. Now I regularly make significant discoveries as I use various techniques to connect with relatives, including establishing who common ancestors are on the basis of discovering DNA matches.

Recently I have posted a page on this website to more fully describe what I am doing with not only my own DNA, but with that of other close relatives. I introduce the four relatives whose DNA I am working with, I indicate the six generations of relatives in my direct ancestral line, I provide a link to a very helpful DNA research video, I briefly introduce some of the MyHeritage tools available for DNA research and, I offer a case study about how I worked with one relative to advance their family research.

Communication is an essential part of family research. Often DNA matching benefits from dialogue to check hunches raised by the research tools. I talk about the various communication channels I use.

I have today published a first newsletter (attached) promoting a Gutenberg Wellington Descendant Reunion. This gathering will run from 10am-5pm on Sunday 22 March 2026. It will provide descendants and associates opportunities to interact, sail on Wellington harbour (Whanganui-a-Tara) and visit the Wellington Museum which features early Wellington maritime exhibits. We will korero and hear some input about conditions in Europe when our forbears left in 1875, receive information about the 100 day sea voyage on the Gutenberg sailing ship and how it was for these immigrants when they arrived in Aotearoa, including where they went. Click on the button to view the newsletter pdf.

Posted by Terry Alve -  Reunion Organiser.
027 600 1926  |  [email protected] ​

You can help by:

1. Providing key contact info for representative descendants who are willing to promote this gathering to their whanau;
2. Providing further info about the life of these immigrant families after their arrival in New Zealand;
3. Indicating your willingness to be part of a planning group who will arrange the 22 March 2026 event.

Watch this space for further posts about this event and these people.

Thank you.
Terry Alve
027 600 1926
[email protected]
Or, use the Contact form on this website.

The ship Gutenberg passenger list below contains the names of those who travelled from the port of Bremmerhaven, Germany leaving on the 18 December 1875. They arrived in Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington Harbour) on 23 March 1876. It will be 150 years to the day on Monday 23 March 2026 when these Vogel Scheme immigrants arrived in Wellington. Alve descendants are planning to mark the occasion with a gathering in Wellington (and possibly cruise on the harbour) on Sunday 22 March 2026. If you are a descendant of one of the immigrants who arrived in Wellington on this ship you might like to join us.

The Alves and the Schormanns knew each other in the Ruhr Valley, Germany, travelled together on the Gutenberg, worked on the construction of the Rimutaka railway line and subsequently building the line to Masterton before farming together on the Alfredton Road east from Eketahuna from 1880.

Heins Briesemann moved to Stratford and farmed. His grandson Trevor and his children live in Tawa, Wellington near where I live.

Tina White (a great grand daughter) wrote an interesting historical reflection about Clara Malgraff and her family who, within a  week of landing in Wellington, travelled on the s.s. Napier to Foxton, as did about 30 others early April 1876. She eloped (and married leter 1876 as a 15 year old) with Jan Iskierka, a Polish man who had arrived a short time before on the Terpsichore. Her family subsequently went to Whanganui. She (Clara Malgraff Iskierka) lived into the 1930's dying in Auckland. https://tinyurl.com/malgraff 

Perhaps you are a (Wellington) Gutenberg passenger descendant, or know someone who is. If so you may be interested in getting in touch. Perhaps marking this occasion is something that you would like to do. Get in touch: [email protected] or ​027 600 1926. 

Terry Alve
Alve Family Historian & Genealogist

We have recently obtained a picture of the ship Gutenberg taken when it was on an Adelaide, Australia slipway undergoing an annual inspection in 1868. At that time it was named the Edinburgh before it was sold to a German company to become the immigration ship Gutenberg Gutenburg).
​

On Monday 23 March 1876 three Alves - Maria Theresia, Carl Wilhelm and Anna Maria Catharina (aged 1) - entered Whanganui-a-tara (Wellington harbour) aboard the Gutenburg ship as Vogel Scheme assisted immigrants from Germany.

To mark the occasion we envisage Alve descendants and friends, and perhaps some other descendants of Gutenburg immigrants will gather, cruise on the harbour and spend time together in and around central Wellington (Poneke). It is suggested that this gathering be on Sunday 22 March 2026.

Planning is at an early stage and we are forming an organising group to make this event happen. Please contact me if you would like to join the organising group for this gathering. Also, if you would like to offer some accommodation for out-of-towners during this weekend, we would be pleased to know.

​Contact: Terry Alve - 027 600 1926 or [email protected]

We're just over two weeks away from remembering our Tīpuna Theresia and Carl Alve's wedding 150 years ago. They were married in Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr Valley, Deutschland Germany on 14 February 1874. An interesting fact about their wedding was that ten couples were married in the same marriage service. Pfarrer (Father) Schulte the Catholic Priest must have offered a Valentine's Day Special in the midst of St Augustinus Church which was in the process of being rebuilt. And, it seems, Carl had to return to work in the coalmine the next day! The Ruhr Valley at the time was experiencing a population explosion as coal had become 'black gold' and hordes of Germans, Poles, Scandanavians and others were flocking to the mines. The reason that ten young couples wanted to marry on that most romantic of days.
​
To celebrate this significant event 66 descendants of Carl and Theresia are gathering at Masters Hall, Pahiatua on the weekend of 17-18 February. We chose this Pahiatua venue because it is near where the Alves settled at Alfredton Road, Eketāhuna in 1880 - four years after arriving in Aotearoa New Zealand as assisted immigrants. During those four years Carl worked for the railways building the Remutaka line and then the line from Featherston to Masterton while he discharged his debt to the Government under the Vogel immigration scheme. A fellow immigrant family the Schormanns who had travelled on the ship Gutenburg to Aotearoa jointly farmed the Eketahuna land in the early years. Part of the Reunion weekend will be a Sunday bus tour to Eketahuna to explore sites of interest, including the original farm block in Alfredton Road.

These, and many other matters relating to Theresia's and Carl's colourful life, are explored in a new book to be released on Valentine's Day. Entitled Valentine's Day 1874 and subtitled, A Ruhr Valley Romance Terry Alve writes of their German background and meeting in Gelsenkirchen. He asks why they emigrated and explores how their life together panned out in Aotearoa New Zealand until Carl's death in 1910. You will find a purchase link at www.alve.nz after Valentine's Day.

To mark the marriage sesqui we have scheduled a Zoom call at 7pm (NZDT) on Valentine's Day 14 February 2024 - an opportunity for brief dialogue (no more than 40 mins.) on the Sesquicentennial of Thersia & Carl’s wedding day.
Join us via this link:
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/4112201146?pwd=fRa0eYclcvqPfx8CnPgXnvTMBi4S80.1&omn=74267779934
There will be a surprise for those of us who tune in!

I have just put up a page on this website with fresh information about the Pahiatua Reunion 17-18 February 2024.

With some staying overnight in Campervans or tents, we can accommodate about 100 people on site. Some may choose to stay in motels or the camping ground in Pahiatua.

Before you come to Pahiatua you may choose to gather together at the old Alve graves in the Palmerston North cemetery 1-1:30pm - Sat. 17th.

Once we are in Pahiatua key Reunion events are:

1. Welcome afternoon tea Sat. 3pm
2. Photographs Sat. 4pm
3. Barbeque tea Sat. 6pm
4. Formal Gathering Sat. 7:30-9:30pm
5. Worship Sun. 9am
6. Eketahuna Tour Sun. 10am-1pm
7. Farewell Lunch Sun. 1:15pm
8. Concluding afternoon tea Sun. 3pm

Terry Alve
​027 600 1926

Many of you know that an Aussie joined the Alve family in New Zealand in 1917. Theresa Wagner was the 12th of 13 children born to Philipp and Caroline Wagner whose families arrived in Tasmania in 1855 from Germany. Transportation of English convicts ended in 1853 and labour was needed to develop what was then known as Van Diemen's Land so many Europeans began arriving. The following year (1856) the state's name was changed to Tasmania.

After a little OE in New Zealand, Theresa married Henry Alve in All Saints Church Palmerston North and they spent the next 40 years together on the family farm at Rangitane, on the banks of the Manawatu River near Opiki. They retired to Longburn around 1963 and died: Henry in 1968 shortly after their 50th wedding anniversary and Theresa in 1971. They are buried on a family plot at Kelvin Grove cemetery, Palmerston North.

Following a visit in October 2022 by Terry & Margaret Alve during which many Wagner cousins were contacted, Terry has produced a 10 minute video about Theresa's life both in Tasmania and New Zealand see: ​https://www.alve.nz/media.html

​A more detailed report of this visit is available in blog posts in our companion website here: ​https://milne-alve.weebly.com/news

​Terry