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 1817

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

578

8 July 1915

Robert Gleadon Purdy
Norah Atkinson Tighe

Robert Gleadow Purdy
Norah Atkinson Tighe
💍 1915/3623

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

23
23

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

19 years
18 months

St. James' Church, Lower Hutt

5789

8 July 1915

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	578
Date of Notice	8 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gleadon Purdy	Norah Atkinson Tighe
BDM Match (98%)	Robert Gleadow Purdy	Norah Atkinson Tighe
	💍 1915/3623
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	19 years	18 months
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	5789
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

579

8 July 1915

Gilbert Vere Bogle
Margaret Cecily Richmond Fell

Gilbert Vere Bogle
Margaret Cecily Richmond Fell
💍 1915/3624

Bachelor
Spinster

medical practitioner

31
26

Trentham
Day's Bay

3 months
5 years

Unitarian Free Church, Wellington

5790

8 July 1915

Rev. G. E. Hale

No	579
Date of Notice	8 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Vere Bogle	Margaret Cecily Richmond Fell
	💍 1915/3624
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	medical practitioner
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Day's Bay
Length of Residence	3 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Unitarian Free Church, Wellington
Folio	5790
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. E. Hale

580

8 July 1915

Thomas Dillon
Janet Hindle Boyd

Thomas Dillon
Janet Hindle Boyd
💍 1915/3625

Widower, January 1908
Widow, October 1895

Settler

65
53

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
2 years

Residence of the bride, 49 Childers Terrace, Kilbirnie

5791

8 July 1915

Rev. W. A. Evans

No	580
Date of Notice	8 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Dillon	Janet Hindle Boyd
	💍 1915/3625
Condition	Widower, January 1908	Widow, October 1895
Profession	Settler
Age	65	53
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the bride, 49 Childers Terrace, Kilbirnie
Folio	5791
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Evans

581

8 July 1915

Sydney Albert Christian Bedell
Laura Gilling

Sydney Albert Christian Bedell
Laura Gilling
💍 1915/14479

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

22
19

Wellington
Wellington

22 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4537

Abraham Gilling, father

8 July 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	581
Date of Notice	8 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Albert Christian Bedell	Laura Gilling
	💍 1915/14479
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	22	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4537
Consent	Abraham Gilling, father
Date of Certificate	8 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

582

9 July 1915

Thomas Christopher Collins
Grace Caroline Rebecca Twist

Thomas Christopher Gollins
Grace Caroline Rebecca Twist
💍 1915/3626

Bachelor
Spinster

Taxi Driver

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
22 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

5792

9 July 1915

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	582
Date of Notice	9 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Christopher Collins	Grace Caroline Rebecca Twist
BDM Match (98%)	Thomas Christopher Gollins	Grace Caroline Rebecca Twist
	💍 1915/3626
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Taxi Driver
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	5792
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 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).