​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.
​
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]

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]

During November 2012 two early Wellington historical framed photos were retrieved from the roof space at 52 Raroa Road, Kelburn, Wellington. They were discovered while family were clearing Phillip Alve's house in preparation for its sale following his death earlier that year. The one pictured here dates from 1886. The second photo dates from 1869 and was taken from Kelburn - perhaps from Troup hill where Phil's house is located - looking over the emerging city towards the harbour.