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 1720

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar A. Stanhope

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

106

8 February 1915

Hugh Lawrence Widdowson
Elizabeth Agnes Smyth

Hugh Lawrence Widdowson
Elizabeth Agnes Smyth
💍 1915/8365

Bachelor
Spinster

medical Practitioner

28
31

Trentham
Wellington

6 weeks
3 days

Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington

340

8 February 1915

Rev. J. R. Glasson

No	106
Date of Notice	8 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Lawrence Widdowson	Elizabeth Agnes Smyth
	💍 1915/8365
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	medical Practitioner
Age	28	31
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	Congregational Church The Terrace Wellington
Folio	340
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. R. Glasson

107

8 February 1915

John Thomson
Clara Helen Hickey

John Thomson
Clara Helen Hickey
💍 1915/372

Bachelor
Spinster

waiter

21
21

Wellington
Wellington

12 months
12 months

Registrar's office Wellington

131

8 February 1915

Deputy Registrar

No	107
Date of Notice	8 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Thomson	Clara Helen Hickey
	💍 1915/372
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	waiter
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's office Wellington
Folio	131
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

108

4 February 1915

George Gordon Denniston
Frances Dorothy Sim

George Gordon Denniston
Frances Dorothy Sim
💍 1915/8249

Bachelor
Spinster

Lieutenant N. Z. Expeditionary Forces

29
27

Trentham
Heretaunga

3 months
16 days

St Peter's Church Wellington

274

8 February 1915

Archdeacon C. C. Harper

No	108
Date of Notice	4 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Gordon Denniston	Frances Dorothy Sim
	💍 1915/8249
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lieutenant N. Z. Expeditionary Forces
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Heretaunga
Length of Residence	3 months	16 days
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	274
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon C. C. Harper

109

8 February 1915

Alfred Book
Alice May Galloway

Alfred Cook
Alice May Galloway
💍 1915/8250

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

35
29

Wellington
Wellington

Life
3 years

St Peter's Church Wellington

275

8 February 1915

Archdeacon C. C. Harper

No	109
Date of Notice	8 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Book	Alice May Galloway
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Cook	Alice May Galloway
	💍 1915/8250
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	3 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	275
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon C. C. Harper

110

9 February 1915

John Bernard Steel
Louise Evelyn Lovell

John Bernard Steel
Louise Evelyn Lovell
💍 1915/11810

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor's Presser

27
18

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
10 years

Residence of Mrs Lewis 55 Thorndon Quay Wellington

341

Mary Lewis mother

9 February 1915

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	110
Date of Notice	9 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Bernard Steel	Louise Evelyn Lovell
	💍 1915/11810
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor's Presser
Age	27	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Lewis 55 Thorndon Quay Wellington
Folio	341
Consent	Mary Lewis mother
Date of Certificate	9 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

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).