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 1944

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1915 Registrar W. Pasthorpe

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

1211

10 December 1915

Tom Stuart Abbott
Rose Alice Liso

Tom Stuart Abbott
Rose Alice Tiso
💍 1916/8706

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
8 months

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

417

10 December 1915

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	1211
Date of Notice	10 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tom Stuart Abbott	Rose Alice Liso
BDM Match (97%)	Tom Stuart Abbott	Rose Alice Tiso
	💍 1916/8706
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	8 months
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	417
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

1212

10 December 1915

Sidney Clive Humphreys
Gwinda Beatrice Lownley

Sidney Clive Humphreys
Gwinda Beatrice Towley
💍 1915/5114

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

22
17

Trentham
Wellington

1 month
17 years

Residence of Mr. C. H. Lownley, 22 Garrett Street, Wellington

7455

Clarence Henry Lownley, father

10 December 1915

Rev. G. K. Smith

No	1212
Date of Notice	10 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Clive Humphreys	Gwinda Beatrice Lownley
BDM Match (96%)	Sidney Clive Humphreys	Gwinda Beatrice Towley
	💍 1915/5114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	22	17
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	17 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. C. H. Lownley, 22 Garrett Street, Wellington
Folio	7455
Consent	Clarence Henry Lownley, father
Date of Certificate	10 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Smith

1213

10 December 1915

Edward Baird
Jemima Armstrong

Edward Baird
Jemima Armstrong
💍 1915/5115

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

30
38

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington

7456

10 December 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	1213
Date of Notice	10 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Baird	Jemima Armstrong
	💍 1915/5115
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	30	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	7456
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

1214

11 December 1915

Edgar Alexander Baggett
Lila Nightingale

Edgar Alexander Baggett
Lila Nightingale
💍 1915/5123

Bachelor
Spinster

Instrument Maker

24
28

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
3 years

Methodist Parsonage, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington

7457

11 December 1915

Rev. G. K. Smith

No	1214
Date of Notice	11 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Alexander Baggett	Lila Nightingale
	💍 1915/5123
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Instrument Maker
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington
Folio	7457
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. K. Smith

1215

11 December 1915

Robert Shearer Raitt
Mary McPhee McCall

Robert Slessor Raitt
Mary McPhee McColl
💍 1915/4793

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
26

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
5 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

7085

11 December 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	1215
Date of Notice	11 December 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Shearer Raitt	Mary McPhee McCall
BDM Match (87%)	Robert Slessor Raitt	Mary McPhee McColl
	💍 1915/4793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	5 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	7085
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 December 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).