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 1829

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar W. G. Thorpe

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

638

26 July 1915

Edward Thomas Ryan
Helen McArthur Cochrane

Edward Thomas Ryan
Helen McArthur Cockrane
💍 1915/3666

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
10 years

St. Joseph's Church, Wellington

5833

26 July 1915

Rev. J. M. Banna

No	638
Date of Notice	26 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Thomas Ryan	Helen McArthur Cochrane
BDM Match (98%)	Edward Thomas Ryan	Helen McArthur Cockrane
	💍 1915/3666
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Wellington
Folio	5833
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Banna

639

26 July 1915

Leonard Charles Tubb
Mildred Olive Whitfield

Leonard Charles Tubb
Mildred Olive Whitfield
💍 1915/3667

Bachelor
Spinster

Stonemason

28
30

Wellington
Wellington

3 weeks
8 months

Residence of Mr. J. Roberts, 50 Riddiford Street, Wellington

5834

26 July 1915

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	639
Date of Notice	26 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Charles Tubb	Mildred Olive Whitfield
	💍 1915/3667
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stonemason
Age	28	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 weeks	8 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Roberts, 50 Riddiford Street, Wellington
Folio	5834
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

640

27 July 1915

William Farquhar Findlay
Elizabeth Mary Gallagher

William Farquhar Findlay
Elizabeth May Gallagher
💍 1915/4816

William Ernest Early
Edith Mary Gallagher
💍 1915/4161

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Practitioner

28
32

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 months

Occidental Hotel, Wellington

6983

27 July 1915

Rev. D. Hurley

No	640
Date of Notice	27 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Farquhar Findlay	Elizabeth Mary Gallagher
BDM Match (98%)	William Farquhar Findlay	Elizabeth May Gallagher
	💍 1915/4816
BDM Match (65%)	William Ernest Early	Edith Mary Gallagher
	💍 1915/4161
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Practitioner
Age	28	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 months
Marriage Place	Occidental Hotel, Wellington
Folio	6983
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

641

28 July 1915

William Arthur Arnold
Elsa Lauch Rintoul

William Arthur Arnold
Elsa Edith Rintoul
💍 1915/3644

Bachelor
Spinster

Business Proprietor

24
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
18 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

5835

28 July 1915

Archdeacon Harper

No	641
Date of Notice	28 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arthur Arnold	Elsa Lauch Rintoul
BDM Match (89%)	William Arthur Arnold	Elsa Edith Rintoul
	💍 1915/3644
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Business Proprietor
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	18 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	5835
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon Harper

642

28 July 1915

Joseph Holden
Rita Lucy Florance

Joseph Holden
Rita Lucy Florance
💍 1915/14492

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

21
19

Trentham
Kaiwarra

7 years
19 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4549

George Florance, father

28 July 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	642
Date of Notice	28 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Holden	Rita Lucy Florance
	💍 1915/14492
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Kaiwarra
Length of Residence	7 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4549
Consent	George Florance, father
Date of Certificate	28 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).