the Alve family come from HUckeswagen, westfalia, germany
ALVE HISTORY
Henry's parents, grandparents, great grandparents and great great grandparents were all born in the Westfalia region of Germany, south of the Ruhr Valley and East of the Rhine River between 1740 and 1856. Henry was born 1889 in the middle of a family that would eventually number 13 children with two girls dying in infancy and one dying before marriage in her twenties. Ten of the children married, with nine of them parenting children. We will take Henry's story later...
JOHANN WILHELMi ALFER 1740-1788 AND Annae Catharinae Saßenbach
Johann Wilhelm Alfer was born probably between 1730 and 1740. His surname reflects the spelling used before 1820. Johann’s wife was Anna Catharina Saszenbach. Johann, a farm labourer (German: ackerslauten), and Anna had at least one child - Wilhelm Melchior Alfer - who was born in 1772 in the region of Wipperfurth near Dusseldorf and Cologne and south east of Huckeswagen, and east of the Rhine River. Johann died in 1788 while living at Kluppelberg, a little further south.
WILHELM MELCHIOR ALFER 1872-? AND ANNA ELIZABETH LAMSFUSZ
In 1814 Wilhelm Melchior Alfer married Anna Elizabeth Lamsfusz in Huckeswagen. Wilhelm was employed as a cart driver and was living at Bundenberg. At the time of his marriage he was aged 42. It is not known if he was married previously. Anna was a widow, whose first husband, Peter Frielingsdorf, had died in 1811, the two having been married only a year before in 1810. Both Peter (1765/66) and Anna (1786) were baptised in the Huckeswagen Catholic Church along with their several brothers and sisters. Anna was possibly the oldest of the family of Johann Wilhelm Lamsfusz and Catharina Gertrud Kemmering.
CARL WILHELM ALFE (1821-pre 1846) and sybilla catharina bosbach (1824-?)
Carl Wilhelm Alfe (Snr) was 24 when he married Sybilla Catharina Bosbach aged 21, a servant girl of Huckeswagen, on 1st February, 1846. Sybilla was born in 1825 at Cuerten, the daughter of Wilhelm Bosbach and Maria Catherina Orth. Her father, like Carl’s, had died prior to their marriage.
CARL WILHELM ALVE (1849-1910) AND MARIA THERESIA MOELLERS (1856-1942)
Carl Wilhelm Alve (Jnr) was the son of weavers whose livelihood was being threatened by the arrival of the Industrial revolution in Germany.
He migrated north and worked as a coal miner in the Ruhr Valley. It is likely that he was conscripted, like all men, into the Germany Army around the time of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. We have no knowledge of any involvement in the war. We understand that he may have met his bride to be through contact with her brother in the coal mines. Carl and Maria Theresia Moellers married on Valentine's Day 1874. A witness to their marriage was his brother Ewald.
Their first child Anna Maria Cathrina Alve 'Mary' was born in December 1874 in Gelsenkirchen. Before he emigrated to New Zealand Carl is thought to have worked for a time as a dairy farmer.
Maria Theresia was orphaned at an early age along with her older sister Mary Catherine. Their parents were Wilhelm Moellers and Katharina Spahr. We have no knowledge of why the girls were orphaned. Perhaps a combination of poverty and the death of their father contributed. They lived in the orphanage associated with St Augustine's Catholic Church, Gelsenkirchen and later Maria Theresia helped in the orphanage until her marriage to Carl aged 17. As a minor (aged 17), she required court permission to marry Carl. They were married in a service at the Church along with several other couples, we understand.
He migrated north and worked as a coal miner in the Ruhr Valley. It is likely that he was conscripted, like all men, into the Germany Army around the time of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. We have no knowledge of any involvement in the war. We understand that he may have met his bride to be through contact with her brother in the coal mines. Carl and Maria Theresia Moellers married on Valentine's Day 1874. A witness to their marriage was his brother Ewald.
Their first child Anna Maria Cathrina Alve 'Mary' was born in December 1874 in Gelsenkirchen. Before he emigrated to New Zealand Carl is thought to have worked for a time as a dairy farmer.
Maria Theresia was orphaned at an early age along with her older sister Mary Catherine. Their parents were Wilhelm Moellers and Katharina Spahr. We have no knowledge of why the girls were orphaned. Perhaps a combination of poverty and the death of their father contributed. They lived in the orphanage associated with St Augustine's Catholic Church, Gelsenkirchen and later Maria Theresia helped in the orphanage until her marriage to Carl aged 17. As a minor (aged 17), she required court permission to marry Carl. They were married in a service at the Church along with several other couples, we understand.
Mary Theresia and Carl with Anna Maria left Bremerhaven, Germany on 18th December, 1875 aboard the Gutenberg. They were assistant immigrants under the Vogel Scheme. After a voyage lasting 96 days they arrived in Wellington on 23rd March 1876.
A little later her sister Mary Catherine emigrated with her husband John Herbers to Aurora Illinois. She died there in 1895 and John in 1905. Contact with her descendants has been retained.
In recent years contact has been established with the family of Carl's sister, Anna Maria Hulsen b. August 1858 who arrived in the USA November 1882 with her son Carl aged 7. Her husband Henry Hulsen had found work as a coal miner in Depue, Illinois.
A little later her sister Mary Catherine emigrated with her husband John Herbers to Aurora Illinois. She died there in 1895 and John in 1905. Contact with her descendants has been retained.
In recent years contact has been established with the family of Carl's sister, Anna Maria Hulsen b. August 1858 who arrived in the USA November 1882 with her son Carl aged 7. Her husband Henry Hulsen had found work as a coal miner in Depue, Illinois.
New zealand - wairarapa (1876-1900)
The Alve's first lived in Featherston, New Zealand where Carl worked on the construction of the Rimutaka rail line from Wellington to Featherston which was completed in 1878. Children progressively arrived: Charlie 1876, Theresia 1878, Anna 1880.
In 1881 Carl was granted land on deferred payment on Alfredton Road east of Mellenskov (later Eketahuna). He farmed this land in partnership with Hermann Heinrich Schormann who was a fellow passenger during the voyage from Germany to NZ. Together they were granted 117 acres in standing bush.
Carolena was born on Alfredton Road in 1882 indicating that the family were together. Further children were born there: Elizabeth 1884, Alfred Ernest 1887, Henry Wilhelm 1889, Edward Otto 1891, Rosa Ellen 1893 and Emma Ida 1896. Both Emma and Rosa died in 1896 - Emma a few hours after her birth at Eketahuna where she is buried in an unmarked grave, and Rosa after they moved south back to Featherston - her headstone still stands in the graveyard at Featherston.
The Alfredton Rd. land was sold in 1896 and the family began sharemilking for Donald Dairies for four years. In 1898 a highlight was the December wedding of Anna Maria (Mary) to George Busch from Canterbury.
In 1881 Carl was granted land on deferred payment on Alfredton Road east of Mellenskov (later Eketahuna). He farmed this land in partnership with Hermann Heinrich Schormann who was a fellow passenger during the voyage from Germany to NZ. Together they were granted 117 acres in standing bush.
Carolena was born on Alfredton Road in 1882 indicating that the family were together. Further children were born there: Elizabeth 1884, Alfred Ernest 1887, Henry Wilhelm 1889, Edward Otto 1891, Rosa Ellen 1893 and Emma Ida 1896. Both Emma and Rosa died in 1896 - Emma a few hours after her birth at Eketahuna where she is buried in an unmarked grave, and Rosa after they moved south back to Featherston - her headstone still stands in the graveyard at Featherston.
The Alfredton Rd. land was sold in 1896 and the family began sharemilking for Donald Dairies for four years. In 1898 a highlight was the December wedding of Anna Maria (Mary) to George Busch from Canterbury.
rangitane 1900-1910
In 1900 land was purchased in the Manawatu with Carl, Maria and the younger children travelling via the new rail link through the Manawatu Gorge to Rangitane adjacent the old Ngawhakaraua Jetty which was the last navigable place for the steam boats up the Manawatu river from Foxton. It was this spot nearby a Maori settlement of the Rangitane tribe that much of the early Palmerston North supplies were offloaded and taken by bullock cart to the fledgling town. By the time the Alve's arrived in 1900 the rail line from Foxton to Palmerston North had been completed and the Rangitane station located nearby.
The reminder of the family, except mary who remain married in the Wairarapa, were at Rangitane by winter 1902 - the year Rupert Adolph, the youngest of the family, was born. The family worked together so that by September 1910 when Carl died, much of the bush had been cleared, the dairy herd was established, pigs were farmed, an orchard was established and the farming operation flourished despite two major floods across the farmland in 1902 and 1906. In 1906 Anna died of goitre. Lena and Theresia married in 1906 and 1908 respectively.
The reminder of the family, except mary who remain married in the Wairarapa, were at Rangitane by winter 1902 - the year Rupert Adolph, the youngest of the family, was born. The family worked together so that by September 1910 when Carl died, much of the bush had been cleared, the dairy herd was established, pigs were farmed, an orchard was established and the farming operation flourished despite two major floods across the farmland in 1902 and 1906. In 1906 Anna died of goitre. Lena and Theresia married in 1906 and 1908 respectively.
OLD MANAWATU, OR THE WILD DAYS OF THE WEST
CHAPTER I. — THE LAND OF THE RANGITANE
CHAPTER I. — THE LAND OF THE RANGITANE