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 1897

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar A. H. Greenhouse

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

976

21 October 1915

Horace Herbert Burnham Marsden
Ann Marden

Horace Herbert Burnham Marsden
Anne Warden
💍 1915/4939

Bachelor
Widow, 10 September 1911

Meat Preserver

27
36

Petone
Petone

3 years
20 years

St Augustine's Church Petone

7231

21 October 1915

Rev. G. B. Stephenson

No	976
Date of Notice	21 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Herbert Burnham Marsden	Ann Marden
BDM Match (91%)	Horace Herbert Burnham Marsden	Anne Warden
	💍 1915/4939
Condition	Bachelor	Widow, 10 September 1911
Profession	Meat Preserver
Age	27	36
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Augustine's Church Petone
Folio	7231
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Stephenson

977

21 October 1915

Ernest Richard Hawkins
Louisa Alice Tee

Ernest Richard Hawkins
Louisa Alice Tee
💍 1915/4748

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

23
21

H.M.S. Torch
Wellington

12 months
9 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

7039

21 October 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	977
Date of Notice	21 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Richard Hawkins	Louisa Alice Tee
	💍 1915/4748
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	H.M.S. Torch	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	9 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7039
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

978

21 October 1915

Harry Norman Hoy
Edith Berrill

Harry Norman Hoy
Edith Berrill
💍 1915/4940

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

Life
4 years

Residence of Mrs E. W. Berrill 18 Kenwyn Terrace Wellington

7232

21 October 1915

Rev. W. Shirer

No	978
Date of Notice	21 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harry Norman Hoy	Edith Berrill
	💍 1915/4940
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs E. W. Berrill 18 Kenwyn Terrace Wellington
Folio	7232
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

979

22 October 1915

Walter George Scambary
Ida Emily George

Walter George Scambary
Ida Emily George
💍 1915/4749

Bachelor
Spinster

Shop Assistant

23
20

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
6 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

7040

John George Father

22 October 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	979
Date of Notice	22 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter George Scambary	Ida Emily George
	💍 1915/4749
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shop Assistant
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7040
Consent	John George Father
Date of Certificate	22 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

980

22 October 1915

James Dempsey Harkness
Lucinda Beatty

James Dempsey Harkness
Lucinda Beatty
💍 1915/12395

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanic

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
1 year

St Peter's Church Wellington

7233

22 October 1915

Rev. E. J. Sola

No	980
Date of Notice	22 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Dempsey Harkness	Lucinda Beatty
	💍 1915/12395
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanic
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	1 year
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	7233
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. J. Sola

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).