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 1937

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar J. H. 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

1176

1 December 1915

Walter Parker
Ida Amelia Josephine Palmer

Walter Parker
Ida Amelia Josephine Palmer
💍 1915/5077

Bachelor
Spinster

Artilleryman R. N. Z. A.

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
life

Church of Christ, Colombo Street, Wellington

7419

1 December 1915

Mr. W. Phillips

No	1176
Date of Notice	1 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Parker	Ida Amelia Josephine Palmer
	💍 1915/5077
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artilleryman R. N. Z. A.
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	life
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Colombo Street, Wellington
Folio	7419
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Mr. W. Phillips

1177

1 December 1915

Eric Ross Shand
Mabel Isabel Trask

Eric Ross Shand
Mabel Isabel Trask
💍 1915/5078

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookseller

22
20

Trentham
Wellington

14 years
20 years

Trinity Methodist Church Newtown

7420

Lawrence Reuben Trask father

1 December 1915

Rev. W. Beckett

No	1177
Date of Notice	1 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Ross Shand	Mabel Isabel Trask
	💍 1915/5078
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookseller
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church Newtown
Folio	7420
Consent	Lawrence Reuben Trask father
Date of Certificate	1 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Beckett

1178

1 December 1915

William Roy Howard
Alice Jane Hughes

William Roy Hoverd
Alice Jane Hughes
💍 1915/5079

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

21
18

Wellington
Wellington

life
3 years

St. Joseph's Church Wellington

7421

Sarah Thomas mother

1 December 1915

Rev. J. M. Barra

No	1178
Date of Notice	1 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Roy Howard	Alice Jane Hughes
BDM Match (94%)	William Roy Hoverd	Alice Jane Hughes
	💍 1915/5079
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	life	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Wellington
Folio	7421
Consent	Sarah Thomas mother
Date of Certificate	1 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Barra

1179

2 December 1915

John David Cowan
Elizabeth Harriet Penny

John David Cowan
Elizabeth Harriet Penny
💍 1915/4789

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
26

Point Halswell, Miramar
Point Halswell, Miramar

5 years
2 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

7081

2 December 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	1179
Date of Notice	2 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John David Cowan	Elizabeth Harriet Penny
	💍 1915/4789
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Point Halswell, Miramar	Point Halswell, Miramar
Length of Residence	5 years	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	7081
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

1180

2 December 1915

Raymond Philip Lowry
Norah Ella Cook

Raymond Philip Lowry
Norah Ellen Cook
💍 1915/5080

Bachelor
Spinster

Letterpress Printer

23
21

Petone
Petone

23 years
4 years

St. David's Church Petone

7422

2 December 1915

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	1180
Date of Notice	2 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Raymond Philip Lowry	Norah Ella Cook
BDM Match (94%)	Raymond Philip Lowry	Norah Ellen Cook
	💍 1915/5080
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Letterpress Printer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	23 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church Petone
Folio	7422
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

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).