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 1703

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar J. P. Althorpe

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

9 January 1915

Arthur Gilbert Laurenson
Dorothy Freda Wilkening

Arthur Gilbert Laurenson
Dorothy Freda Wilkening
💍 1915/8269

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

38
17

Hataitai
Island Bay

2 1/2 years
17 years

St Marks Church Wellington

369

Conrad Christian August Wilkening Father

9 January 1915

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	21
Date of Notice	9 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Gilbert Laurenson	Dorothy Freda Wilkening
	💍 1915/8269
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	38	17
Dwelling Place	Hataitai	Island Bay
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St Marks Church Wellington
Folio	369
Consent	Conrad Christian August Wilkening Father
Date of Certificate	9 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

11 January 1915

Ernest Alfred Ahern
Louisa Gladys Mary Avery

Ernest Alfred Ahern
Louisa Gladys Mary Avery
💍 1915/8242

Bachelor
Spinster

Harbour Board Clerk

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
9 years

Residence of Mrs J. Meek, 12 Devon Street, Wellington

15/268

11 January 1915

Rev. J. Dawson

No	22
Date of Notice	11 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Alfred Ahern	Louisa Gladys Mary Avery
	💍 1915/8242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Harbour Board Clerk
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs J. Meek, 12 Devon Street, Wellington
Folio	15/268
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

11 January 1915

Horatio John Feary
Eileen Williams

Horatio John Feary
Eileen Williams
💍 1915/11896

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

31
31

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

5 days
16 days

Registrars Office Wellington

103

11 January 1915

Registrar

No	23
Date of Notice	11 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horatio John Feary	Eileen Williams
	💍 1915/11896
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	5 days	16 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	103
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

11 January 1915

Fredrick Leslie Laurenson
Evelyn Augusta Ruth Powell

Frederick Leslie Laurenson
Evelyn Augusta Ruth Powell
💍 1915/7656

Bachelor
Spinster

Shop Assistant

22
21

Ngahauranga
Wellington

22 years
21 years

Trinity Methodist Church Riddiford Street Wellington

322

11 January 1915

Rev. J. Ward

No	24
Date of Notice	11 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fredrick Leslie Laurenson	Evelyn Augusta Ruth Powell
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick Leslie Laurenson	Evelyn Augusta Ruth Powell
	💍 1915/7656
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shop Assistant
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Ngahauranga	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church Riddiford Street Wellington
Folio	322
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Ward

12 January 1915

Charles Broad
Alice Baldwin

Charles Croall
Alice Baldwin
💍 1915/8154

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

30
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Registrars Office Wellington

104

12 January 1915

Registrar

No	25
Date of Notice	12 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Broad	Alice Baldwin
BDM Match (89%)	Charles Croall	Alice Baldwin
	💍 1915/8154
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrars Office Wellington
Folio	104
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).