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 1831

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar J. W. Allen 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

648

29 July 1915

James Frederick Brown
Dorothy Venice Riasdale

James Frederick Brown
Dorothy Venie Ridsdale
💍 1915/3648

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
19

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
4 months

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington

5839

Richard Archibald Ernest Ridsdale father

29 July 1915

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	648
Date of Notice	29 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Frederick Brown	Dorothy Venice Riasdale
BDM Match (96%)	James Frederick Brown	Dorothy Venie Ridsdale
	💍 1915/3648
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	4 months
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington
Folio	5839
Consent	Richard Archibald Ernest Ridsdale father
Date of Certificate	29 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

649

29 July 1915

William Henry Roberts
Elsie Mary Holloway

William Henry Roberts
Elsie Mary Solloway
💍 1915/3649

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

34
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
7 days

St. Peter's Church Wellington

5840

29 July 1915

Archdeacon C. C. Harper

No	649
Date of Notice	29 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Roberts	Elsie Mary Holloway
BDM Match (97%)	William Henry Roberts	Elsie Mary Solloway
	💍 1915/3649
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	7 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	5840
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon C. C. Harper

650

29 July 1915

Henry Herbert Small
Kathleen Balcomber White

Henry Herbert Small
Kathleen Balcombe White
💍 1915/3650

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

23
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
5 years

The Terrace Congregational Church Wellington

5841

Florence Clara White mother

29 July 1915

Rev. R. Glasson

No	650
Date of Notice	29 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Herbert Small	Kathleen Balcomber White
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Herbert Small	Kathleen Balcombe White
	💍 1915/3650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The Terrace Congregational Church Wellington
Folio	5841
Consent	Florence Clara White mother
Date of Certificate	29 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Glasson

651

30 July 1915

Stephen Norbert Green
Virginia May Elizabeth Waller

Stephen Norbert Green
Virginia May Elizabeth Waller
💍 1915/3651

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
23

Wellington
Johnsonville

25 years
6 years

St. John's Church Johnsonville

5842

30 July 1915

Rev. F. H. Petrie

No	651
Date of Notice	30 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Norbert Green	Virginia May Elizabeth Waller
	💍 1915/3651
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	25 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Johnsonville
Folio	5842
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. H. Petrie

652

30 July 1915

Septimus Murdoch Ross
May Cornwall

Septmuis Murdoch Ross
May Cornwall
💍 1915/3652

Bachelor
Spinster

Boilermaker

35
30

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
4 years

Methodist Church Molesworth Street Wellington

5843

30 July 1915

Rev. G. S. Cook

No	652
Date of Notice	30 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Septimus Murdoch Ross	May Cornwall
BDM Match (95%)	Septmuis Murdoch Ross	May Cornwall
	💍 1915/3652
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boilermaker
Age	35	30
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Molesworth Street Wellington
Folio	5843
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Cook

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).