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 1807

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

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

531

22 June 1915

John Fernandez
Francesca Austin

John Fernandez
Francesca Austin
💍 1915/788

Widower
Spinster

Surveyor

52
39

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
6 months

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

2824

22 June 1915

Rev. Archdeacon Harper

No	531
Date of Notice	22 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fernandez	Francesca Austin
	💍 1915/788
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor
Age	52	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	2824
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. Archdeacon Harper

532

23 June 1915

Gilbert Harry Annetts
Fay Butterfield Clark

Gilbert Harry Annetts
Fay Butterfield Clark
💍 1915/3568

Bachelor
Spinster

Motor Mechanic

25
26

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
4 years

Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington

5709

23 June 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	532
Date of Notice	23 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Harry Annetts	Fay Butterfield Clark
	💍 1915/3568
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Motor Mechanic
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	5709
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

533

23 June 1915

John Stanley Mathias
Beatrice Jennie Pratt

John Stanley Mathias
Beatrice Jennie Pratt
💍 1915/789

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
25

Trentham
Wellington

30 days
Life

Residence of Rev. J. G. Chapman, 38 McFarlane Street, Wellington

2825

23 June 1915

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	533
Date of Notice	23 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Stanley Mathias	Beatrice Jennie Pratt
	💍 1915/789
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	30 days	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. J. G. Chapman, 38 McFarlane Street, Wellington
Folio	2825
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

534

23 June 1915

Albert William McArdle
Jessie Biggs

Albert William McCardle
Jessie Biggs
💍 1915/790

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
5 weeks

Residence of Mr. S. Barker, 16 Hopper St., Wellington

2826

Matthew Henry Biggs, father

23 June 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	534
Date of Notice	23 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert William McArdle	Jessie Biggs
BDM Match (96%)	Albert William McCardle	Jessie Biggs
	💍 1915/790
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. S. Barker, 16 Hopper St., Wellington
Folio	2826
Consent	Matthew Henry Biggs, father
Date of Certificate	23 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

535

23 June 1915

William James Carson
Lily Maude Buck

William James Carson
Lilly Maude Buck
💍 1915/3567

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk, New Zealand Railways

23
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
7 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

5708

23 June 1915

Archdeacon C. C. Harper

No	535
Date of Notice	23 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Carson	Lily Maude Buck
BDM Match (97%)	William James Carson	Lilly Maude Buck
	💍 1915/3567
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk, New Zealand Railways
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	5708
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon C. C. Harper

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).