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 1824

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1915 Registrar J. H. Pulford

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

613

19 July 1915

Percy Kettlewell
Daisy Dinnen

Percy Kettlewell
Daisy Dinnen
💍 1915/14680

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman

28
26

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
1 year

Presbyterian Church, Kelburn

5813

19 July 1915

Rev. A. B. W. Standage

No	613
Date of Notice	19 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Kettlewell	Daisy Dinnen
	💍 1915/14680
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kelburn
Folio	5813
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. W. Standage

614

20 July 1915

Frederick Charles Haycraft
Marie Bhan Og Nairn

Frederick Charles Haycraft
Marie Bhan Og Nairn
💍 1915/14681

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

22
16

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
2 years

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

5814

Ellen Miles, mother

20 July 1915

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	614
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Haycraft	Marie Bhan Og Nairn
	💍 1915/14681
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	22	16
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	5814
Consent	Ellen Miles, mother
Date of Certificate	20 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

615

20 July 1915

Lawrence Abel Whitaker
Margaret Greenwood

Lawrence Abel Whitaker
Margaret Greenwood
💍 1915/14682

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

32
29

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 day (from England)

St Michael's Church, Kelburn

5815

20 July 1915

Rev. R. Bray

No	615
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lawrence Abel Whitaker	Margaret Greenwood
	💍 1915/14682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 day (from England)
Marriage Place	St Michael's Church, Kelburn
Folio	5815
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Bray

616

20 July 1915

Alexander Carmichael Matheson
Annie Blair Currie

Alexander Carmichael Matheson
Annie Blair Currie
💍 1915/14683

Widower
Spinster

Bank manager

47
37

Napier
Wellington

11 months
3 weeks

St Andrew's Church, Wellington

5816

20 July 1915

Rev. J. G. Smith

No	616
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Carmichael Matheson	Annie Blair Currie
	💍 1915/14683
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Bank manager
Age	47	37
Dwelling Place	Napier	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St Andrew's Church, Wellington
Folio	5816
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Smith

617

20 July 1915

Frederick Henry Bartlett
Ellen Neil

Frederick Henry Bartlett
Ellen Neil
💍 1915/14489

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker

23
23

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
7 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4546

20 July 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	617
Date of Notice	20 July 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Henry Bartlett	Ellen Neil
	💍 1915/14489
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4546
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).