The Alvey family emigrated from Stralsund, Germany to the United States in the late 1870s. Frederich Alvey (d. 1920) and Sophia Alvey (née Ott, d. 1925) had two children together: William James Alvey (1881-1920) and Ernest Alvey (1883-1974).

William James Alvey served in the United States Army, having enlisted in 1897 and served in the Spanish-American war and the Philippine-American war. En route home to Detroit, he travelled through Seattle, where he worked as a motorman on a cable car, then at the Seattle Police Department. In Seattle he met Eva L. Berneche (1885-1956), a descendant of French Canadians who came west during the gold rush era. William and Eva had two children: Melvin Gerard Alvey (1902-1964) and A. Alexis Alvey (1903-1996). Following the death of her husband, Eva (Richards) worked as a nurse and teacher in Wainwright, Alaska; she published a memoir of her time in the arctic, Arctic Mood: A Narrative of Arctic Adventures (1949).

Melvin Alvey was a lifelong seafarer, and had a long career as a coast guard, stationed at several locations in the Pacific northwest. Together with his wife Edna M. Huntley, he had three children: William Jerard Alvey (b. 1924), Charlene Alvey, and Huntley Darnell Alvey.

A. Alexis Alvey was born in Seattle and attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She led a distinguished career with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (W.R.C.N.S.) during the Second World War, having been selected as one of first class of that body, and she served as an officer on several naval bases across Canada.

Ernest Alvey was a seaman in the United States Navy, and served in the Spanish-American war. He later worked as an upholsterer, and retired as a Master Craftsman at General Motors. He married Aileen Casey (1884-1971), an Irish immigrant, and had a son, Maurice Francis Alvey (1903-1985). Maurice married Margaret E. Turban (b. 1911) and had two children: Robert Maurice Alvey (b. 1962) and Maureen Katharine Alvey (b. 1946).