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 1852

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar J. Palethorpe

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

753

27 August 1915

Albert Raymond Forward
Pauline Dorothy Hunt

Albert Raymond Forward
Pauline Dorothy Hunt
💍 1915/2514

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

23
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 weeks

Registrar's Office Wellington

4577

Mary Ellen Bates mother

27 August 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	753
Date of Notice	27 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Raymond Forward	Pauline Dorothy Hunt
	💍 1915/2514
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4577
Consent	Mary Ellen Bates mother
Date of Certificate	27 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

754

28 August 1915

Reginald Victor Albert Knox
Lilian Jessie Rogers

Reginald Victor Albert Knox
Lilian Jessie Rogers
💍 1915/3739

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

24
19

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
19 years

St. Mark's Church Wellington

5906

James Rogers father

28 August 1915

Rev. S Ogden

No	754
Date of Notice	28 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Victor Albert Knox	Lilian Jessie Rogers
	💍 1915/3739
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	5906
Consent	James Rogers father
Date of Certificate	28 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. S Ogden

755

28 August 1915

Charles Edward Furness
Isabella Cathrine Jardine

Charles Edward Furness
Isabella Catherine Jardine
💍 1915/3740

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

24
19

Wellington
Wellington

23 years
8 years

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

5907

No person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent

11 September 1915

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	755
Date of Notice	28 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Edward Furness	Isabella Cathrine Jardine
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Edward Furness	Isabella Catherine Jardine
	💍 1915/3740
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	23 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	5907
Consent	No person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	11 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

756

28 August 1915

Oliver Edward Robinson
Charlotte Elizabeth Hatchard

Oliver Edward Robinson
Charlotte Elizabeth Hatchard
💍 1915/3741

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
38

Upper Hutt
Wellington

33 years
37 years

St. James Church Wellington

5908

28 August 1915

Rev. W. Shirer

No	756
Date of Notice	28 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver Edward Robinson	Charlotte Elizabeth Hatchard
	💍 1915/3741
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	38
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	33 years	37 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church Wellington
Folio	5908
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

757

30 August 1915

Robert Gordon Rapley Higgie
Lana Violet Downes

Robert Gordon Rapley Higgie
Edna Violet Darnes
💍 1915/3742

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
21 years

St. Michaels Church Kelburn

5909

30 August 1915

Rev. R. Bray

No	757
Date of Notice	30 August 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Gordon Rapley Higgie	Lana Violet Downes
BDM Match (89%)	Robert Gordon Rapley Higgie	Edna Violet Darnes
	💍 1915/3742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	21 years
Marriage Place	St. Michaels Church Kelburn
Folio	5909
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 August 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Bray

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).