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 1737

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar J. H. Palethorpe

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

191

9 March 1915

Alfred Mynhard Retemeyer
Winifred Grace Morris

Alfred Mynhard Retemeyer
Winifred Grace Morris
💍 1915/7644

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

34
33

Wadestown
Wadestown

3 days
Life

St Luke's Church Wadestown

311

9 March 1915

Rev. C. H. Harvey

No	191
Date of Notice	9 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Mynhard Retemeyer	Winifred Grace Morris
	💍 1915/7644
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	34	33
Dwelling Place	Wadestown	Wadestown
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	St Luke's Church Wadestown
Folio	311
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Harvey

192

9 March 1915

Walter Crowley Keston
Constance Lilian Stewart

Walter Crowley Weston
Constance Lilian Stewart
💍 1915/8234

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

38
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days (from Melbourne)
1 day

St Paul's Pro. Cathedral Wellington

251

9 March 1915

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	192
Date of Notice	9 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Crowley Keston	Constance Lilian Stewart
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Crowley Weston	Constance Lilian Stewart
	💍 1915/8234
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	38	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days (from Melbourne)	1 day
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro. Cathedral Wellington
Folio	251
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

193

10 March 1915

James Cornell
Ettie Dorothy Frances Eastbury

James Hornell
Ettie Dorothy Frances Eastbury
💍 1915/8367

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

32
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
7 months

St Joseph's Church Wellington

342

24 March 1915

Rev. O. Burley

No	193
Date of Notice	10 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Cornell	Ettie Dorothy Frances Eastbury
BDM Match (96%)	James Hornell	Ettie Dorothy Frances Eastbury
	💍 1915/8367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 months
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Wellington
Folio	342
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. O. Burley

194

11 March 1915

Arthur George Aldridge
Ada Vernon Young

Arthur George Aldridge
Ada Vernon Young
💍 1915/7603

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Clerk

30
27

Trentham
Trentham

2 months
9 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

152

11 March 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	194
Date of Notice	11 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Aldridge	Ada Vernon Young
	💍 1915/7603
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Clerk
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Trentham
Length of Residence	2 months	9 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	152
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

195

12 March 1915

William Henry Meyrick
Lena Simmonds

William Henry Meyrick
Lena Simmonds
💍 1915/7665

Bachelor
Spinster

Waiter

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 1/2 years

Residence of Mr Simmonds 6 Lorne street Wellington

308

Louisa Simmonds, Mother

12 March 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	195
Date of Notice	12 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Meyrick	Lena Simmonds
	💍 1915/7665
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waiter
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Simmonds 6 Lorne street Wellington
Folio	308
Consent	Louisa Simmonds, Mother
Date of Certificate	12 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

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).