While we are not members of the NZ Society of Genealogists, we recognise the untiring work members do to promote and advance the causes of genealogy and family history. The flyer below promotes this Tawa, Wellington event  that may interest you if you live in this region. I am sure members there will be willing to discuss with you your thorny questions about your ancestry. Perhaps we will see you there. 
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Are you an out-of-towner interested in this event? We may be able to offer overnight accommodation on Friday 28 Aug and/or Saturday 29 Aug. Contact us (Margaret or Terry) if you are interested in this offer. We have room for a couple and a single; or two singles.
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Margaret Milne was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was the daughter of Don and Helen and grew up in Hansens Lane, Upper Riccarton. After her marriage to Terry in Christchurch during 1976  they spent four years in Auckland from 1977-1990 before living in Canterbury, NZ until 1994 and Wellington until the present. The first of their four children (1980-1990) was born in Auckland and the other three in the South Island.

Don was born and grew up in Masterton, New Zealand. He met and married Helen Walker in Christchurch, during 1941. Soon after their marriage he served with the NZ Air Force as a YMCA worker in the Solomon Islands. Together they had a family of four children born between 1949-1955 of which Margaret was the youngest.

The video above records Helen Milne (nee Walker) reflecting on her life.

George emigrated from Aberdeen via London to Masterton in 1910. In 1913 he married Elsie Tooby who was born in Masterton. They married in Masterton and had four children between 1913 and 1918 of whom Don was the third. Elsie was of English descent and lived to be 100.

Donald was born on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides and Helen near Croy, Inverness, They married at Kiltearn west of Inverness in 1906 and they had four children between 1905 and 1917, the youngest of whom was Helen who was born after their move south to Bournemouth, Dorset, England. In 1925 they emigrated as a family to Christchurch, New Zealand.

Very obviously there is a heap of genealogical and historical information buried beneath this post. If you want to know more please get in touch.

Thomas Richard and Annie Mabel Elcox are my maternal grandparents. Annie was a Farmer from Glen Oroua in the Manawatu. Tom arrived in Aotearoa in 1924 after four years serving with the British Army in France, Belgium and India. Annie was born and grew up as the second youngest of a large dairy farming family. They both died young so that my siblings and I, their only grandchildren, never knew them. Their stories are a fascinating study of a very endowed couple serving their families, communities and world. They are told in a new publication, The Grandparents We Never Knew.

Tom (1899-1933) grew up in Areley Kings, Worcestershire, England before offering four years of youthful service in WW1 and on the North West Frontier of India (1917-1921) with the Machine Gun Corps. In New Zealand he very quickly established an agricultural contracting and stock transportation business and fathered three children before he was tragically killed when his truck overturned with a load of sheep aboard in 1933.

Annie (1897-1951) was gifted musically gaining ATCL in 1923.  She worked as a church and community musician and music teacher into her marriage. Living as a widow with three young children, she took on the task of maintainig their family business at Rongotea into WW2 when manpower shortages demaned its sale in 1941. She spent the last ten years of her life raising her children, the second of whom had been born with cerebral palsy. Annie died soon after her younger daughter's marriage at age 53.

Flipbook and a PDF copies of this publication are below.

Images and reflections on the Sesqui gathering in Wellington on 21-22 March 2026 are on the Gutenberg150 page on this website...

Since the event new information has become available that will be included in a 2nd edition of the book published:- From Bremerhaven to Wellington: THE 1876 GUTENBERG IMMIGRANTS TO AOTEAROA. When this is nearing publication you will be advised on this website and/or via email. Those who have previously purchased the book will be given FREE access to the online flipbook and its PDF file. If you would like to purchase a hard copy of the 2nd edition book a link will be available. In the meantime if you would like to buy a 1st edition book click on the button below...

In preparation for launching the 2nd edition book, further contributions are invited. If you have information about any of the immigrant families or their descendants you would like included please contact Terry by 31 October 2026.

​The weekend celebrations will begin with a few descendants joining a commentated Wellington Harbour tour on Saturday 21 March. Most will join a guided tour of Wellington Museum, Queen's Wharf around midday Sunday before spending the afternoon together in the Loaves and Fishes hall at Wellington Anglican Cathedral.
Descendants will gather from around New Zealand and one couple are travelling from Perth, Western Australia. During the afternoon a book about the backdrop, the voyage, these immigrants and their descendants will be launched. Researched and written by descendant Terry Alve, From Bremerhaven to Wellington: the 1876 Gutenberg European Immigrants to Aotearoa New Zealand, this illustrated text offers 240 pages of information about this group of Europeans and their descendants to 1926.
Registrations to attend are still being received. For more information and the rego form visit: 
https://www.alve.nz/gutenberg150.html

All is organised and I look forward to you joining me to celebrate the arrival of the Gutenberg Immigrants to Wellington on 22 March 2026.

After much research, writing and planning we now invite you to register and pay to attend this Wellington gathering. Pre-registrations representing 40 people, representative of Gutenberg families, suggest that this will be a fitting memorial to our courageous ancestors.

A programme for the day running from 10:30am - 5pm has been organised for central Wellington. During the morning around Queens Wharf and during the afternoon at the Loaves and Fishes room in Wellington Anglican Cathedral, Hill Street adjacent to parliament buildings.

For more details visit: ​https://www.alve.nz/gutenberg-reunion.html

In addition you are invited order the book written to coincide with this event, "From Bremerhaven to Wellington: the 1876 Gutenberg Immigrants to Aotearoa." Running to 230 pages and 75,000 words this history comments on why these immigrants came, who they were, biographies of 131 of the 165 immigrants and information about their first descendants. For those who attend, this is available at $30 per copy.

Terry Alve
027 600 1926

Year 2026 has arrived and it comes with our March opportunity to celebrate the arrival in 1876 of some of our forbears. Yes, the Gutenberg arrived in Wellington harbour with 165 immigrants aboard who had sailed from Bremerhaven after earlier journeys from their European home countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany. The sea voyage took 96 days: from 18 December 1875 to arrival on 23 March 1876.
Several descendants and friends have indicated their interest in attending a sesqui-memorial day in Wellington on Sunday 22 March 2026. If you want to express your interest in attending this day please signup here:
https://www.alve.nz/gutenberg-reunion.html
Formal registrations and payment will be invited later in January 2026.
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Associated with this sesqui-gathering is the writing of a memorial history in which I have written about:

• the European and New Zealand backdrops to this migration;
• key people related to it;
• the 40+ year history of the ship Gutenberg;
• information about the immigrants and their immediate descendants;
• and, 200+ sources of information.

The publication is liberally illustrated with black and white imagery and will provide access to colour imagery.  It will be available at the Wellington gathering for $30.00. If you pre-order and pay before the Gathering on 22 March purchase price will be $25 if you collect it there. Delivery extra if not collected in Wellington on 22 March.

Terry Alve
​027 600 1926

Both of these Museums bordering Whānganui-ā-Tara shores are worth a visit. That's what I have done recently. Part of my motivation was to check their suitability for a visit from Gutenberg descendants on Sunday 22 March 2026 when we are together for the sesqui celebration of the Gutenberg's arrival in the Harbour. While neither has displays about the Vogel scheme or the ships, like the Gutenberg, I think the Wellington Museum displays are more helpful in gaining a better historical understanding of Wellington and its harbour. We plan to schedule a visit to the Wellington Museum on our Sesqui Sunday. Click on the images to visit websites.

The other two activities planned on Sesqui Sunday are a harbour crossing to Day's Bay on a East by West Ferry and Kai & Kōrero, possibly at the Loaves and Fishes hall at Wellington Anglican Cathedral, adjacent to the Parliamentary buildings (tbc).

This is the tentative title of a Gutenberg Sesqui-centennial book I am writing to help commemorate the Gutenberg, its immigrant passengers and early descendants. This project is proceeding apace and it's planned that the book will be with the printers early in January with publication before 22 March.
While it will be nigh impossible to have information about every passenger, particularly the single immigrants, it is hoped that all married couples and families will have a mention.
Draft extracts from this publication are below in a PDF file.

Book sale price will be $30-$40 and orders will be invited before year's end.

This is a final plea to (Wellington Trip) Gutenberg descendants. I am still seeking genealogical, historical, anecdotal and first generation information that may add value to the biographies that I seek to include in the Sesqui Publication. Anything you have (written or pictorial) relating to the Gutenberg immigrants: pre-departure, onboard or post arrival 1976 to 1926. A conveniently accessible passenger list is here for you to check if your ancestor travelled on the Gutenberg to Wellington.: ​

It would great to have your contributions by the end of November.

Many thanks,
Terry Alve
027 600 1926
​[email protected]

A newsletter update was published last week with new information about this sesqui-centenniual event on Sunday 22 March 2026. Click on the button below for new information.

Carlo and his wife Santina, who travelled from Italy, were the largest family (7 children) who travelled aboard the immigrant ship Gutenberg which berthed in Wellington in March 1876. They initially settled at Jacksons Bay in South Westland before the community (up to 400 people) proved too inhospitable for the settlers to remain. In the late 1870s they moved to farm in Taranaki. Along the way they increased their family to eleven children. One of their sons was killed in the Somme during the first world war.

This is part of the story we have about the Turchis. We continue to gather such stories which will be published after the Reunion event.