Mid November Margaret was given an airfare to Christchurch by Jonathan and family for her birthday. While there she visited the Canterbury A&P show, visited friends Rosalind and Heather Stewart - soon after Ros'80th birthday, and made a cake with her grand daughters Lucy & Penny. We visited Tasmania from 20 Oct. to 3 Nov. and learned much about the people, places and history of Terry's grandma Theresa Wagner's (1888-1971) family. She emigrated to NZ in 1915 as a 27 year old single woman. She was 12th in a family of 13 children who grew up on a farm at Woodsdale. Her old school is now a local museum with lot's of Wagner exhibits and some of her family still live there. Terry is here with Tasmanian cousins at Woodsdale. The St Matthias Anglican Church nearby was built by grandma's brother and furnished by the family. And we saw a platypus or two in the real as well as outside this Axemen's Museum near La Trobe. Earlier in October we attended the 50th Reunion of the Maranatha Christian Group Margaret belonged to in Palmerston North before we met. This was held in the old Pahiatua Maternity Hospital that is now Masters Hall. Her and our dear friends Alrena and Alan Martis are on the left. We are about to have our 4th funeral in St Anne's shortly. On 22 Sept. Sala Manulevu left the congregation very sad as we farewelled and gave thanks for the life of this very gifted Fijian woman. Apart from being a very loved and caring mum, Sala was a musician and worship leader, an effective pray-er, a very supportive pastoral evangelist and a wise Christian counsellor, among other things. Sala was there with other St Anne's people praying for us during challenging times in the 1990's.
A major project this year has been writing a biography of Margaret's father Don Milne. He with his wife Helen had a very significant Christian healing ministry in Christchurch between 1960-1990. The biography: "Don Milne: a most incredible man" will be published in April 2023 and launched at a gathering at St Martin's Anglican Church in Spreydon, Christchurch on Sat. 15th April at 1:30pm. More info: https://www.tinyurl.com/donmilnebio
As we extend to you our love and greetings this Christmas and new year we thought you might enjoy this colourful picture taken at Cataract Gorge, Launceston. Not all is what it seems however. Behind the photographer the gorge and the river were in high flood and it was a scary experience walking over the raging Gorge river via the nearby swing bridge !
Whether you are in a pleasant place or in a disturbing place at the moment or somewhere in between, may you know peace and hope as the Spirit of Christmas and Summer Holiday refreshment surround you this year. With our prayerful good will, Margaret & Terry Alve
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A selection of images and brief comments following Margaret and my journey through Tasmania. While it was raining, cloudy or windy during most of our time on this Island State of Australia, nothing could dampen the beauty, scenery and friendliness of the people we met, many of whom were Terry's cousins. Images from our travel from Hobart airport along the west coast and north to Low Head at the mouth of the Tamar river on Bass Strait Images from our travel from the Launceston region through Devonport to Meina Inland. Images from Bronte Park, Derwent Bridge, Hamilton, Woodsdale and Oatlands. Images from Hobart, Huon Valley, Richmond and Hobart Airport rental carpark. Terry Alve
This collection of 7 flood photos was given to Terry Alve at the end October 2022 by the grandchildren of Theresa's sister Martha. They were taken/posted to Tasmanian relatives by Theresa Alve (nee Wagner), possibly in 1930 - see newspaper 'Personal' below. Theresa spent that winter in Tasmania around the time of her mother's 80th birthday on 29 September, although we believe she returned home before this date accompanied by Nellie Bender her niece and a daughter of her sister Annie Caroline Bander. Flooding across the Alve's Rangitane, Manawatu farm was constant during the forty years Theresa lived there from 1917-1957. Margaret and I holidayed in Tasmania 22 October to 3 November 2022. In this post I report on our contacts with relatives to whom I am related through my grandma Theresa Alve (nee Wagner) 1880-1971 who lived in New Zealand from 1915. I was given various photos and added to them with Margaret and I photographing what we saw. Our last stop was Richmond near Hobart airport where this image reminded us of Tasmania's first people. We saw no Australian Aborigines who we identified as such. One person, who served us dinner at Oatlands, suggested he has mixed ancestry including Aboriginal. While we did not pursue Tasmania's convict past, it is never far from the surface. A visit to the Richmond gaol brought it closer and walking over the Richmond bridge, built by convicts in 1823, did too. At Deloraine I bought a book that tells how over 100 New Zealander convicts were transported to Tasmania - have you ever heard of that? Read, "Cleansing the Colony" by Kristyn Harman who lectures at Hobart University. Our trip to Tasmania coincided with the publication and launch of Michael Watt's book, "The Fingal Valley's German Heritage" at St Helen's Church History rooms. Some of the Wagner and Hauke ancestors, including two of grandfather Philip Wagner's brothers settled in the Fingal Valley in the 1860's. Both married women who had close connections with Tasmania's transportation convict past. Michael Watt is seated at the table in the background and David Llewellyn, former deputy Premier of Tasmania and book launch guest speaker, is in the foreground. We spent a Saturday afternoon at Woodsdale were Grandmother Theresa grew up and went to school taking (and receiving) these pictures... We did some cemetery visits and sited several Wagner-connected graves including these... Treasures in Woodsdale Woodsdale Museum & Wagner Cottage These are some of the relatives we met along the way... A Family Business I visited Graeme Davis (Alma's brother) who founded the Tasmanian Clothing Company at Spreyton, Devonport about 30+ years ago. Graeme is a great grandson of Chris and Laura Wagner who were brother and sister respectively of my great grandparents Philip and Caroline Wagner. (The Clothing Factory is now managed by Graeme's daughter Angela.) More Distant Relatives Icing on the Cake While they are not Wagner relatives, we had a wonderful evening dinner date with Maria and David Malone at their home in Hobart. Maria and her family had a close association with Margaret's parents during the 1970-80's. Both are composers and musicians and have connections with the University of Hobart. Maria lectures in music and David teaches and plays guitar across Australia and beyond. Amongst David's repertoire is music composed by Maria. https://ww.facebook.com/davidmalonegtr E&OE
Last year we took a decision to take a five year subscription with 'My Heritage' genealogical and family history software. We took this decision on the basis that this software, while owned and developed in Israel, is focused more on European ancestry which most of ours is. Through their Smart Match system we have discovered many ancestors and relatives back into the 1500's. This year we have also both submitted samples for DNA analysis and already this is connecting us with many cousins back a few generations and confirming relative links. Currently our combined 'My Heritage' database numbers 6,752 relatives. We have recently been using a new 'My Heritage' feature called 'Deep Story' to create up to 10 min. videos of direct line ancestors. This software automatically creates a video based on data: genealogical, photographic, documentary, etc. relating to a given relative/ancestor. It then provides options to create text linked to other photos/documents which will change the narrative to suit. We demonstrate below with the video we put together for Margaret's mother Helen Milne (nee Walker). Two other things are happening this year.
Margaret & Terry Alve 027 600 1926 News from margaret & TerryWe trust that Christmas 2019 has been a joyful time for you and yours and that 2020 will be full of adventure and happiness. A highlight of our European and UK holiday during August & September was discovering the place in Crown Drive, Inverness where Margaret's grandmother Helen Walker (nee Gordon) worked as a maid in 1901 when she was 16. The McKenzies who own this property were very kind and invited us in and Margaret to view this very special place. This highlight followed another, this time in Hueckeswagen, Germany, where we met and spent some time there and travelling south to Wiesbaden via Cologne Cathedral, with Linda Daniel (from Denver, Colorado, USA) and Sue Heine (from Bechteim, north of Wiesbaden, Germany). These two delightful ladies are sisters and third cousins with Terry. Their Great Grandmother (Anna Maria Hulsen nee Alve) was younger sister of Carl Wilhelm Alve - Terry's great grandfather who emigrated to New Zealand in 1876. Their great grandmother Anna emigrated to Illinois, USA in the early 1880's. As far as we know neither family had contact since parting in December 1875. Undoubtedly our holiday was the highlight of a varied year that included:
The other significant venues for our European holiday were Helsinki where we caught up with dear friends Craig and Malin, William and Ellinor Purdie and saw Finland with a quick trip to Talin, Estonia. Gelsenkirchen where Terry's great grandparents Carl & Maria married on Valentine's Day 1874. In Scotland we met with Margaret's cousins Gilbert and Angus Walker in South Uist and Glasgow respectively and their wives (both Margaret) and some of their families. Stays followed: near Inverness, Aberdeen, the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and Whitby before our final stop in Worcestershire where Terry's 2nd cousins live - we spent a delightful Saturday with Julie and Jane and their partners Dave and Clive exploring the area where grandfather Richard Elcox lived before emigrating to NZ in the 1920's after serving in WW1. Europe & UK in PicturesWith much love from Margaret & Terry,
1 January 2020 The journey from Huckeswagen to Frauenstein was via cousin Sue's car by way of Koln Cathedral, then along the rhine R. via Koblenz for lunch, Rudesheim for afternoon tea and Frauenstein as darkness came. Along the way we viewed a number of castles perched on high points. As we noticed in Dusseldorf so all along the Rhine R. traffic is heavy - oil and other cargo transportation as well as pleasure boats and tour boats. We were in Wiesbaden on the trail of Terry's paternal Grandmother Theresa Wagner whose family emigrated from Dotzheim, Wiesbaden to Tasmania in the 1850's. Dotzheim is a little north west of Dotzheim and Wiesbaden in the hills where it was suggested the heat would be a little less - it was. Theresa came to NZ in 1915 and married grandfather Henry Alve in 1917 before living on the family farm at Rangitane in the Manawatu. We stayed at Herberge Hof Armada which is essentially a horse ranch with cattle, sheep, chooks and roosters to boot. People leave their horses to graze here and come here to ride. The complex has developed an accommodation wing where we stayed offering bed & breakfast. An uphill walk from the rural setting here took us into the Frauenstein village where we caught a bus to and fro Dotzheim and Wiesbaden on Friday, visited the local graveyard and had a meal at the hotel Sinz. Terry had a couple of walks into the surrounding woods also. On the Saturday Hof Armada hosted a festival afternoon which we joined in. Later on the Saturday we attended the last of the summer musical concerts held in the nearby Eberbach Monastery with Sue and Linda and about 1,000 others. This followed a lovely outdoor evening meal in the grounds with Sue and Linda. We had internet connectivity problems as we travelled and decided to make further blog posts after we returned to NZ. In the meantime we posted regular selections of travel imagery on Facebook during September. View here: https://www.facebook.com/terry.alve Our Russian driver had us in Huckeswagen in an hour and paid Margaret a high compliment as he left us by by taking and kissing her hand! We were met in Huckeswagen by Elena a neighbour of the property where we stayed - Friedrichstraße 5. She bent over backwards to make our stay enjoyable and became our de facto guide - thanks Elena. Impressions of Huckeswagen are illustrated by the photos above:
The train ride took 40 mins. We were in the company of a Germany gran who was heading for Hamburg which takes 4 hours. 3 different opinions were offered at the Gelsenkirchen station as to how we might traverse the 1.5km to our Maritim Hotel. Finally we jumped a tram gratis (they didn’t ask) and got off nearby. We were cooked after the 15 min walk in near 30degree C temperature about 1.30pm. We had a 10th floor room that looked over the Stadt gardens - green trees as far as we could see. Essen to the right, Bochum pretty much straight ahead. Everything else pretty much lost in the sea of green trees. But what was that in the air over Essen? And it came closer and closer the evening we arrived! T. Did a recci into the town centre and uncannily arrived at St Augustin church where his great grand parents Carl & Maria Alve married on 14 February 1874 (St Valentine's day) in a marriage service for about 15 couples led by Fr Schulte! Quite an emotional moment which he recognised by lighting 2 votive candles in memory and recognition of them who soon after, bravely journeyed to NZ. The church precinct recognises the pivotal roll that coal mining played in the development of the region from the mid 1800’s onwards. We dined out our first night in G. in the hotel restaurant before retiring for the night with the fan on to provide a little relief from the heat. Pfarrer Heinrich Konig is a celebrated person in Gelsenkirchen because he resisted the National Socialist party during WW2. As you see he end up in Dachau concentration camp where, I think, he was hanged on his birthday in 1942. My lasting impression from visiting Gelsenkirchen is that this is a peaceful place. This was reinforced when I went walking on the 2nd day before joining Margaret to have a closer look at the city. At the far end of the Stadt Garden is an arcing, large monument to the victims of the 8 German Concentration Camps. This edifice caught me unawares and viewing it was deeply moving. A little further on in the gardens is this water garden that I visited a second time with Margaret. While there I had a conversation with an Ukrainian man who assured me the Ukraine is not part of Russia. He knew NZ from a relative by marriage who came from NZ. He was in town for the wedding of his wife’s daughter that day in Bochum nearby. This Saturday was also notable that the local football stadium the hometown team Schalke 04 was playing Bayern Munich in the BundesLeague 1st division I think. Many people with their mid blue shirts were in town, even at the hotel. I didn’t hear the final score but I think it was a one sided affair in favour of Bayern. The State Gardens in Gelsenkirchen below our hotel Sunday had us attend the early afternoon English service in St Augustin led by a Nigerian priest. There I met a Pole with Jewish connections who lived down the road at Buer. We talked in the Church and later at the hotel bar about many things, but especially about the impending death of his close friend who lives in London. As part of his treatment for melanoma his tongue has been cut out. Life in the raw happens where ever one goes. I await to hear from Felix how it pans out for him as he progresses through the grief that is his. So our precious time in Gelsenkirchen concluded on Monday 26 August as our Russian driver collected us late morning to travel the 50-60 km to Huckeswagen where Carl Alve was born and grew up in the mid 1800's.
It’s 6:30am as I sit in a 10th storey hotel room looking south over a heavily tree covered park with a wee lake in the foreground which is home to ducks and geese including a family of nine goslings with their parents who look different from any we have seen in NZ. In the middle distance are large pylons carrying electricity across the Ruhr valley and to the right is the city of Essen with a modicum of sky scrapers. There are hints of other towns and villages but the dominant impression is that disguising this very heavily populated area are hordes of mature trees.
But I get ahead of myself because I am in Gelsenkirchen about which I will write in my next post. Today I want to reflect on our experience of Düsseldorf 40 minutes away by train we discovered yesterday, to the south west by the Rhine River. You may have gleaned from my Facebook posts that getting from Helsinki in Finland to Düsseldorf via Copenhagen was a little frought! Craig and the children accompanied us to Helsinki airport, we bade our farewells and we were ready in good time to travel to Copenhagen. We had heard the Russian President Putin was coming to Helsinki as we were leaving. Whether it was the need for high security at the airport or some other issue we will likely never know, however our flight via Airbus was about 30 minutes late in taking off. It was a crowded flight and we knew that there would be an issue in Copenhagen because scheduled arrival and departure times were only 50 minutes apart. If the Düsseldorf flight was leaving on time it would be a close run thing. We had word before our flight landed in Copenhagen that our departure gate for Düsseldorf was B15. Little did we realise that meant a wolf of at least 15 minutes. Problem was Margaret was wearing dress shoes not running shoes which in the end she removed for the sake of comfort and speed. Well we made it to our second flight with seconds to spare to be travelling on a smaller plane that was as empty as the Helsinki plane had been packed. Good thing was we got a great meal including 3 top of the range chocolates that seemed too precious to eat! It was a lovely flight that allowed us to get a great impression of the Ruhr region before we landed on time at 1pm. But where were our bags? Obviously not on the designated conveyor belt. We had a taxi waiting the driver of which was patient when we called to explain our dilemma and need to do business with the SAS staff before we left. Having done all we could we met Imad our driver who ushered us to a large black Mercedes, leather covered seats, 8 person people mover just for the two of us! A bit over the top really for us but nevertheless enjoyable as Imad explained some of the landmarks of Düsseldorf. We were preoccupied with thinking who has been in this taxi before us: a Bundesleague soccer star, Angela Merkel, perhaps even Putin when he visited Germany, Dodi Fayed when he visited Harrods in Düsseldorf or others eminent and important. We also wondered if something like this vehicle would suit the Perris family of Tawa!? We stayed at Ruby Leni hotel which is central in Düsseldorf and awaited the return of our bags. Margaret lay low for the rest of the day - she was enjoying a talking book she had downloaded. Terry did a recci of the city taking a long walk along Wilhelmstrasse before spending time in a shopping mall before beginning to retrace his steps (he hoped). He felt like he was a local when an elderly German frau asked if he knew where Wilhelmstrasse was. Acting very knowing he pointed in the direction he had just come and set her straight. That Wednesday evening the Ruby Leni had organised entertainment with nibbles so Terry tuned in to listen first to a local German sing some very soulful music before the Irishmen from Vienna came on to sing some iconic Irish music. In the process He had robust conversation with a reasonably good English speaking German man from Limburg in the south. He was there as a singer/musician himself, impressed with the quality of the entertainment. Thursday had us head towards the Altstead (old town) after a good cafe breakfast and a walk along Dusseldorf’s noted expensive shopping area. It was there Marg bought some walking shoes at H&M for 20 Euros! About noon we boarded a boat on the Rhine for a tour of Düsseldorf from the river - see pics. We wended our way back through the Alstead market district including along the street that has been described as the longest bar in the world. Our arrival back at Ruby Leni about 2:30pm brought the good news that our bags had arrived and were in the hotel store room. Much relief and joy which was well expressed in the hug Marg gave the hotel receptionist lady. By this stage Terry’s cold had become full blown with a streaming nose and chest congestion. Sleep was a little hard to sustain so all and all he felt quite miserable. As he writes Saturday morning this has now broken and begins to feel quite behind him. Before bed we had very reasonably priced train tickets to Gelsenkirchen (about 15 Euros for the two of us), Terry had reconnoitred the train station about 20 mins. away and we had taken the decision to walk to the train station with our big bags in tow in good time for our 11:08 departure on Flixtrain. In fact we did this with oodles of time to spare and we had a leisurely breakfast along the way within a stone’s throw away from the station. By noon Friday we were in Gelsenkirchen ready for our next adventure. |
AuthorMargaret & Terry Alve live in Tawa, NZ. Between them they are linked to several families from the UK and Germany who emigrated to Tasmania and Aotearoa-New Zealand between 1850 and 1925. Archives
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