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 1866

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

823

17 September 1915

John Alfred Shirley
Dorothy Emelvaunne Scoullar

John Alfred Shirley
Dorothy Emelrourne Sconllar
💍 1915/3680

Bachelor
Spinster

Barman

25
23

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
23 years

Residence of mr. Scoullar 17 Tasman Street Wellington

5945

17 September 1915

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	823
Date of Notice	17 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alfred Shirley	Dorothy Emelvaunne Scoullar
BDM Match (93%)	John Alfred Shirley	Dorothy Emelrourne Sconllar
	💍 1915/3680
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barman
Age	25	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	23 years
Marriage Place	Residence of mr. Scoullar 17 Tasman Street Wellington
Folio	5945
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

824

16 September 1915

Douglas Stirling Powell
Eva Ida Baumgren

Douglas Stirling Powell
Eva Ida Baoumgren
💍 1915/3681

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookseller & Stationer

25
21

Petone
Petone

25 years
9 years

St. David's Church Petone

5946

16 September 1915

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	824
Date of Notice	16 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Stirling Powell	Eva Ida Baumgren
BDM Match (97%)	Douglas Stirling Powell	Eva Ida Baoumgren
	💍 1915/3681
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookseller & Stationer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	25 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church Petone
Folio	5946
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

825

17 September 1915

William Flanagan
Amy Isabel Webb

William Flanagan
Amy Isabel Webb
💍 1915/3682

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk N. Z. Railways

34
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
8 years

St. Peter's Church Wellington

5947

17 September 1915

Rev. E. I. Sola

No	825
Date of Notice	17 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Flanagan	Amy Isabel Webb
	💍 1915/3682
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk N. Z. Railways
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	5947
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. I. Sola

826

17 September 1915

Walter Hambley Pearce
Elizabeth Anne Heppleston

Walter Hambley Pearce
Elizabeth Ann Heppleston
💍 1915/3683

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
7 years

Residence of mrs Heppleston 8 Upper Rata Rd., Hataitai

5948

17 September 1915

mr. E. J. Dabourne

No	826
Date of Notice	17 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Hambley Pearce	Elizabeth Anne Heppleston
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Hambley Pearce	Elizabeth Ann Heppleston
	💍 1915/3683
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Residence of mrs Heppleston 8 Upper Rata Rd., Hataitai
Folio	5948
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1915
Officiating Minister	mr. E. J. Dabourne

827

17 September 1915

John Archibald Roberts
Charlotte Holmes Hill

John Archibald Roberts
Charlotte Holmes Hill
💍 1915/4841

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

36
39

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
7 years

St. Peter's Church Wellington

7158

17 September 1915

Rev. E. I. Sola

No	827
Date of Notice	17 September 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Archibald Roberts	Charlotte Holmes Hill
	💍 1915/4841
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	36	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	7158
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. I. Sola

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).