Intentions to Marry, 1915 Mauriceville to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840460, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1915 is bound in six volumes (a to f) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1915d contains pages 1501-1972, covering districts from Mauriceville to Wellington

Page 1591

District of Raetihi Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar A. W. Ashwell

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

4 January 1915

Richard Henry Bennett
Annie Evaline May

Richard Henry Bennett
Annie Evaline May
💍 1915/8968

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor
Domestic duties

29
21

Raetihi
Raetihi

4 years
19 years

St Mary's Church (Anglican) Raetihi

1144

4 January 1915

Rev. J. C. Abbott Raetihi

No	97
Date of Notice	4 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Henry Bennett	Annie Evaline May
	💍 1915/8968
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor	Domestic duties
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Raetihi	Raetihi
Length of Residence	4 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St Mary's Church (Anglican) Raetihi
Folio	1144
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Abbott Raetihi

20 January 1915

Albert George Wills
Margaret Mary Sullivan

Albert George Wills
Margaret Mary Sullivan
💍 1915/8967

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach driver
Domestic duties

38
28

Raetihi
Raetihi

18 years
12 months

Mrs McDonalds Residence Queen St Raetihi

1143

20 January 1915

Rev Father Henri Le Bouteiller

No	98
Date of Notice	20 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Wills	Margaret Mary Sullivan
	💍 1915/8967
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach driver	Domestic duties
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Raetihi	Raetihi
Length of Residence	18 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Mrs McDonalds Residence Queen St Raetihi
Folio	1143
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Henri Le Bouteiller

20 January 1915

Albert George Wills
Margaret Mary Sullivan

Albert George Wills
Margaret Mary Sullivan
💍 1915/8967

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach driver
Domestic duties

38
28

Raetihi
Raetihi

18 years
12 months

Roman Catholic Church Raetihi

1143

20 January 1915

Rev Father Henri Le Bouteiller

No	99
Date of Notice	20 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert George Wills	Margaret Mary Sullivan
	💍 1915/8967
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach driver	Domestic duties
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Raetihi	Raetihi
Length of Residence	18 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Raetihi
Folio	1143
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Henri Le Bouteiller

100

25 January 1915

Thomas Sidney Fagg
Bridget Esther Byles

Thomas Sidney Fagg
Bridget Esther Byles
💍 1915/13062

Widower
Spinster

Storekeeper
Domestic duties

32
42

Horopito
Horopito

2 years
1 year

St Mary's (Anglican) Church Raetihi

1142

25 January 1915

Rev. J. C. Abbott Raetihi

No	100
Date of Notice	25 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Sidney Fagg	Bridget Esther Byles
	💍 1915/13062
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper	Domestic duties
Age	32	42
Dwelling Place	Horopito	Horopito
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	St Mary's (Anglican) Church Raetihi
Folio	1142
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. C. Abbott Raetihi

101

31 March 1915

Daniel Sheehy
Nicoline Katherine Frederickson

Daniel Sheehy
Nicoline Katherine Frederickson
💍 1915/1883

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Home duties

25
24

Raetihi
Raetihi

7 years
6 years

Roman Catholic Church Raetihi

3733

31 March 1915

Rev Father Menard

No	101
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Sheehy	Nicoline Katherine Frederickson
	💍 1915/1883
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Home duties
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Raetihi	Raetihi
Length of Residence	7 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Raetihi
Folio	3733
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev Father Menard

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).