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 1729

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

151

22 February 1915

Paul Hansen
Miriam Theresa Bernard

Paul Hansen
Miriam Theresa Bernard
💍 1915/7659

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

37
31

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
25 years

St. James Church, Wellington

325

22 February 1915

Rev. J. Shirer

No	151
Date of Notice	22 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Paul Hansen	Miriam Theresa Bernard
	💍 1915/7659
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	37	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Wellington
Folio	325
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Shirer

152

22 February 1915

Henry Hansen
Sarah Ann Hawes

Henry Hansen
Sarah Ann Hawes
💍 1915/8377

Bachelor
Divorced (Degree absolute 20 Feb. 1915.)

Supervisor Telegraph Department

38
37

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
5 days

Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington

328

22 February 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	152
Date of Notice	22 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Hansen	Sarah Ann Hawes
	💍 1915/8377
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced (Degree absolute 20 Feb. 1915.)
Profession	Supervisor Telegraph Department
Age	38	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	5 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	328
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

153

22 February 1915

John Allan Wills
Emma Rubina McGill

John Allan Wills
Emma Rubina McGill
💍 1915/8374

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
18 years

St. Peter's Church Wellington

348

22 February 1915

Archdn C. C. Harper

No	153
Date of Notice	22 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Allan Wills	Emma Rubina McGill
	💍 1915/8374
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	348
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdn C. C. Harper

154

23 February 1915

Sydney St. Clair Tingey
Louisa Grace Arnold

Sydney St Clair Tingey
Louisa Grace Arnold
💍 1915/12431

Bachelor
Spinster

Secretary

32
28

Wellington
Wellington

25 years
28 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

261

23 February 1915

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	154
Date of Notice	23 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney St. Clair Tingey	Louisa Grace Arnold
BDM Match (98%)	Sydney St Clair Tingey	Louisa Grace Arnold
	💍 1915/12431
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Secretary
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	25 years	28 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	261
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

155

23 February 1915

George Frederick Lomas
Janet Samson

George Frederick Lomas
Janet Samson
💍 1915/8241

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Officer

23
29

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
3 days

St. Johns Church Wellington

267

23 February 1915

Rev. J. Gibb

No	155
Date of Notice	23 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Frederick Lomas	Janet Samson
	💍 1915/8241
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Officer
Age	23	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church Wellington
Folio	267
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

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).