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 1751

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar G. G. Hodgkins

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

261

30 March 1915

David Taylor
Harriet Alice Lawrence

David Taylor
Harriett Alice Lawrence
💍 1915/869

Bachelor
Spinster

Gasfitter

26
20

Petone
Petone

26 yrs
13 yrs

Residence of Mr Lawrence 14 Udy Street Petone

2883

Harriet Alice Lawrence Mother

30 March 1915

Mr H. Grinstead

No	261
Date of Notice	30 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Taylor	Harriet Alice Lawrence
BDM Match (98%)	David Taylor	Harriett Alice Lawrence
	💍 1915/869
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gasfitter
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	26 yrs	13 yrs
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Lawrence 14 Udy Street Petone
Folio	2883
Consent	Harriet Alice Lawrence Mother
Date of Certificate	30 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Mr H. Grinstead

262

31 March 1915

William Thomas Stanley Edwards
Margaret Mary O'Sullivan

William Thomas Stanley Edwards
Margaret Mary O'Sullivan
💍 1915/1960

Bachelor
Spinster

Warehouseman

34
34

Wellington
Wanganui

12 yrs
6 mos

Residence of Mrs Strachan No 2 Line Wanganui

3810

31 March 1915

Rev J. R. Holley

No	262
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Stanley Edwards	Margaret Mary O'Sullivan
	💍 1915/1960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Warehouseman
Age	34	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wanganui
Length of Residence	12 yrs	6 mos
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Strachan No 2 Line Wanganui
Folio	3810
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. R. Holley

263

31 March 1915

Reginald Steptoe
Kate Susannah Skinner

Richard Steptoe
Kate Susannah Skinner
💍 1915/834

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler

33
31

Wellington
Wellington

8 yrs
2 yrs

Residence of Mrs M. Floride Main Road Lower Hutt

2871

31 March 1915

Rev J. McCaw

No	263
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Steptoe	Kate Susannah Skinner
BDM Match (84%)	Richard Steptoe	Kate Susannah Skinner
	💍 1915/834
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 yrs	2 yrs
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs M. Floride Main Road Lower Hutt
Folio	2871
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. McCaw

264

31 March 1915

Arthur Paul Anders Hansen
Elsie June Collett

Arthur Paul Anders Hausen
Elsie Jane Collett
💍 1915/10818

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep farmer

28
21

Petone
Petone

3 days
21 yrs

St Augustine's Church Petone

2881

31 March 1915

Rev G. B. Stephenson

No	264
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Paul Anders Hansen	Elsie June Collett
BDM Match (95%)	Arthur Paul Anders Hausen	Elsie Jane Collett
	💍 1915/10818
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep farmer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 days	21 yrs
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church Petone
Folio	2881
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev G. B. Stephenson

265

31 March 1915

William Watson Dickinson
Florence Amelia Brennan

William Watson Dickinson
Florence Amelia Brennan
💍 1915/8889

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

39
27

Trentham
Trentham

5 mos
12 mos

Residence of Mr Patterson 96 Abel Smith Street Wellington

715

31 March 1915

Adjt. J. S. Bladin

No	265
Date of Notice	31 March 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Watson Dickinson	Florence Amelia Brennan
	💍 1915/8889
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	39	27
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Trentham
Length of Residence	5 mos	12 mos
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Patterson 96 Abel Smith Street Wellington
Folio	715
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1915
Officiating Minister	Adjt. J. S. Bladin

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).