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 1825

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar J. H. Althorpe

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

618

20 July 1915

Sydney George Bowers
Olive Osbourne Higgins

Sydney George Bowers
Olive Osbourne Higgins
💍 1915/14490

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

19
19

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

10 years
3 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4547

John Bowers Father; No person in N.Z. authorized to give consent.

3 August 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	618
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney George Bowers	Olive Osbourne Higgins
	💍 1915/14490
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	19	19
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	10 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4547
Consent	John Bowers Father; No person in N.Z. authorized to give consent.
Date of Certificate	3 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

619

21 July 1915

Arthur Edwin Black
Georgina Adelaide Samuels

Arthur Edwin Black
Georgina Adelaide Samuels
💍 1915/14684

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

35
33

Trentham
Wellington

6 weeks
1 week

St. John's Church Wellington

5817

21 July 1915

Rev J. Hill

No	619
Date of Notice	21 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Edwin Black	Georgina Adelaide Samuels
	💍 1915/14684
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	35	33
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Wellington
Folio	5817
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Hill

620

21 July 1915

Mark Barnett
Eileen Norah Keegan

Mark Barnett
Eileen Norah Beegan
💍 1915/14491

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

23
21

Lyall Bay
Wellington

4 years
12 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

4548

21 July 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	620
Date of Notice	21 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mark Barnett	Eileen Norah Keegan
BDM Match (97%)	Mark Barnett	Eileen Norah Beegan
	💍 1915/14491
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4548
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

621

21 July 1915

Robert Rae Jewitt
Grace Daisy Richard

Robert Rae Jewitt
Grace Daisy Rickard
💍 1915/14685

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

31
27

Trentham
Wellington

12 months
2 1/2 years

Residence of Mrs Richard 2 Rixon Grove Wellington

5818

21 July 1915

Rev W. Shirer

No	621
Date of Notice	21 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Rae Jewitt	Grace Daisy Richard
BDM Match (97%)	Robert Rae Jewitt	Grace Daisy Rickard
	💍 1915/14685
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Richard 2 Rixon Grove Wellington
Folio	5818
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev W. Shirer

622

21 July 1915

David Simpson
Edith Jane Jacobson

David Simpson
Edith Jane Jacobson
💍 1915/14686

Bachelor
Spinster

Stereotyper

24
22

Petone
Petone

24 years
12 years

Residence of Mr Jacobson 4 Victoria Street Petone

5819

21 July 1915

Rev J. J. Lewis

No	622
Date of Notice	21 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Simpson	Edith Jane Jacobson
	💍 1915/14686
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stereotyper
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	24 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Jacobson 4 Victoria Street Petone
Folio	5819
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev J. J. Lewis

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).