This poster was used to advertise the Steeves Family Gathering in 1867, the first ever of such a gathering for the family. Now numbering upwards of 300,000 descendants worldwide, the family name originated in Hillsborough as the Stief family from Germany. Heinrich and Regina Stief left their homeland Germany in 1749 and first settled in Pennsylvania. From there, in 1766, they, their seven sons, and a small group of fellow settlers migrated to the rough terrain around New Brunswick's Petitcodiac River. Faced with starvation, frigid winters, and abandonment by their sponsors, which had included Benjamin Franklin, the settlers defied the odds by not only surviving but prospering.
The Stief family finally settled in what is now Hillsborough, Albert County, New Brunswick. In the Return of Inhabitants of the Township of Hillsborough taken in 1783 the Stief name disappeared and was anglicized into Steeve. The Walling Map of 1862 records the name as Steves and after a couple other subsequent 'clerical errors' the name has become Steeves. With so many descendants, in 2016, an estimated 1,900 Steeves gathered in Moncton for the Steeves’ extended family reunion, held to celebrate the 250th anniversary of their ancestors arrival in New Brunswick.