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 1905

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar J. P. Stanhope

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

1016

28 October 1915

Leonard Coup
Mary Doody

Leonard Coup
Mary Doody
💍 1915/4984

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
33

Wellington
Wellington

2 weeks
1 week

Catholic Presbytery Patterson Street Wellington

7259

28 October 1915

Rev. J. M. Barra

No	1016
Date of Notice	28 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Coup	Mary Doody
	💍 1915/4984
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	Catholic Presbytery Patterson Street Wellington
Folio	7259
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Barra

1017

28 October 1915

Carl Vigo Dane
Queenie Elizabeth born fol. Westwood

Carl Vigor Davie
Queenie Elizabeth Cornfort Westwood
💍 1915/4991

Bachelor
Spinster

Upholsterer

21
20

Wellington
Wellington

6 weeks
5 weeks

Methodist Manse 21 Hankey St Wellington

7260

no person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent

11 November 1915

Rev. G. K. Smith

No	1017
Date of Notice	28 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl Vigo Dane	Queenie Elizabeth born fol. Westwood
BDM Match (85%)	Carl Vigor Davie	Queenie Elizabeth Cornfort Westwood
	💍 1915/4991
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Upholsterer
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	5 weeks
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse 21 Hankey St Wellington
Folio	7260
Consent	no person in New Zealand having authority by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	11 November 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Smith

1018

29 October 1915

Thomas Henry Sherwood
Elvina Pope

Thomas Henry Sherwood
Elvina Pope
💍 1915/4992

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

28
29

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
6 years

St. John's Church Wellington

7261

29 October 1915

Rev. J. Gibb

No	1018
Date of Notice	29 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Henry Sherwood	Elvina Pope
	💍 1915/4992
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Wellington
Folio	7261
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

1019

29 October 1915

Sydney George Bland
Ethel Mary Godber

Sydney George Bland
Ethel Mary Godber
💍 1915/4993

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter N.Z.R.

24
25

Petone
Petone

7 years
25 years

Methodist Church Nelson Street Petone

7262

29 October 1915

Rev. J. J. Lewis

No	1019
Date of Notice	29 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney George Bland	Ethel Mary Godber
	💍 1915/4993
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter N.Z.R.
Age	24	25
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	7 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Nelson Street Petone
Folio	7262
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lewis

1020

29 October 1915

John Henry Sundgren
Jessie Denham Sparrow

John Henry Sundgren
Jessie Denham Sparrow
💍 1915/4994

Bachelor
Spinster

Basketmaker

27
27

Petone
Wellington

27 years
5 years

Residence of Mr. Sparrow 11 Roxburgh Street Wellington

7263

29 October 1915

Rev. E. R. Weston

No	1020
Date of Notice	29 October 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Sundgren	Jessie Denham Sparrow
	💍 1915/4994
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Basketmaker
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Sparrow 11 Roxburgh Street Wellington
Folio	7263
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. R. Weston

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).