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 1759

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar J. H. Etheridge

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

291

6 April 1915

John William Barclay
Bertha Campbell Mowbray

John William Barclay
Bertha Campbell Mowbray
💍 1915/608

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

31
31

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
20 years

All Saints Church, Kilbirnie

2736

6 April 1915

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	291
Date of Notice	6 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Barclay	Bertha Campbell Mowbray
	💍 1915/608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	20 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Kilbirnie
Folio	2736
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

292

6 April 1915

Harry Orlando Winnie
Louie Marie Mullany

Harry Orlando Winnie
Louie Marie Mullany
💍 1915/852

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

21
19

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

Life
Life

Residence of Mr. H. Walker, 17 Rua Street, Lyall Bay

15/2890

Hugh Mullany, Father

6 April 1915

Rev. J. J. Lewis

No	292
Date of Notice	6 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Orlando Winnie	Louie Marie Mullany
	💍 1915/852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. H. Walker, 17 Rua Street, Lyall Bay
Folio	15/2890
Consent	Hugh Mullany, Father
Date of Certificate	6 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lewis

293

7 April 1915

Andrew Thomas Plunkett
Mary Maher

Andrew Thomas Plunkett
Mary Maher
💍 1915/833

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

32
32

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
Life

St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington

2853

7 April 1915

Rev. A. Venning

No	293
Date of Notice	7 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Thomas Plunkett	Mary Maher
	💍 1915/833
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	32	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	2853
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Venning

294

7 April 1915

Samuel Bailey
Mabel Beatrice Reeves

Samuel Bailey
Mabel Beatrice Reeves
💍 1915/609

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

28
27

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
4 years

St. Johns Church, Wellington

2737

7 April 1915

Rev. J. Gibb

No	294
Date of Notice	7 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Bailey	Mabel Beatrice Reeves
	💍 1915/609
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Johns Church, Wellington
Folio	2737
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

295

7 April 1915

Cyril Steed Girdlestone
Linda Charlotte Mace

Cyril Steed Girdlestone
Linda Charlotte Stace
💍 1915/610

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

31
27

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
22 years

St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

2738

7 April 1915

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	295
Date of Notice	7 April 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cyril Steed Girdlestone	Linda Charlotte Mace
BDM Match (95%)	Cyril Steed Girdlestone	Linda Charlotte Stace
	💍 1915/610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	2738
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 April 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

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).