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 1713

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar W. W. de Castro

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

27 January 1915

Joseph John Richardson
Lena O'Connell

Josiah John Richardson
Lena OConnell
💍 1915/8281

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

33
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
12 months

St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

357

27 January 1915

Rev. J. A. O'Connell

No	71
Date of Notice	27 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph John Richardson	Lena O'Connell
BDM Match (92%)	Josiah John Richardson	Lena OConnell
	💍 1915/8281
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	12 months
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	357
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. O'Connell

27 January 1915

Clarence Edward Vautier
Katherine Isobell MacDonald

Clarence Edward Vautier
Catherine Isobell MacDonald
💍 1915/8147

Widower 22 May 1912
Spinster

Trooper

28
27

Trentham
Upper Hutt

1 month
5 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

120

27 January 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	72
Date of Notice	27 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clarence Edward Vautier	Katherine Isobell MacDonald
BDM Match (98%)	Clarence Edward Vautier	Catherine Isobell MacDonald
	💍 1915/8147
Condition	Widower 22 May 1912	Spinster
Profession	Trooper
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	1 month	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	120
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

28 January 1915

Norman Edward White
Ethel May Wallis

Norman Edward White
Ethel May Wallis
💍 1915/1694

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
Life

St John's Church, Wellington

3566

28 January 1915

Rev. J. Patterson

No	73
Date of Notice	28 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Edward White	Ethel May Wallis
	💍 1915/1694
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	Life
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Wellington
Folio	3566
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Patterson

28 January 1915

Sidney Bertram Hodgson
Florence Hamilton Mansfield

Sidney Bertram Hodgson
Florence Hamilton Mansfield
💍 1915/7654

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
20

Wellington
Khandallah

9 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church, Khandallah

320

Frederick William Mansfield, Father

28 January 1915

Rev. J. Cumming

No	74
Date of Notice	28 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Bertram Hodgson	Florence Hamilton Mansfield
	💍 1915/7654
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Khandallah
Length of Residence	9 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Khandallah
Folio	320
Consent	Frederick William Mansfield, Father
Date of Certificate	28 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cumming

28 January 1915

Walter Alfred Smith
Frances Mary Harkness

Walter Alfred Smith
Frances May Martin
💍 1915/8282

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

30
32

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
6 years

Anglican Church, Kilbirnie

358

28 January 1915

Rev. H. G. Blackburne

No	75
Date of Notice	28 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Alfred Smith	Frances Mary Harkness
BDM Match (83%)	Walter Alfred Smith	Frances May Martin
	💍 1915/8282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	30	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	358
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Blackburne

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).