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 1660

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 1915 Registrar Chas. E. Hylton

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

104

5 June 1915

John Palliser
Eva Annie Crespin

John Palliser
Eva Annie Crespin
💍 1915/1910

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder & Contractor
Home duties

31
30

Wanganui
Wanganui

4 years
11 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Wanganui

3760

5 June 1915

A. H. Marshall, Methodist

No	104
Date of Notice	5 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Palliser	Eva Annie Crespin
	💍 1915/1910
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder & Contractor	Home duties
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	4 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Wanganui
Folio	3760
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 June 1915
Officiating Minister	A. H. Marshall, Methodist

105

10 June 1915

Horace Norman McLeod
Amelia Ann Forman Williams

Horace Norman McLeod
Amelia Ann Forman Williams
💍 1915/1895

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter
Waitress

23
26

Wanganui
Wanganui

2 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

3769

10 June 1915

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	105
Date of Notice	10 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Norman McLeod	Amelia Ann Forman Williams
	💍 1915/1895
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter	Waitress
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	2 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	3769
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

106

11 June 1915

Thomas Leonard Sperring
Elizabeth Olive Tetley-Sagar

Thomas Leonard Sparring
Elizabeth Olive Tattey-Sagar
💍 1915/4518

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper
Milliner

32
29

Wanganui
Wanganui

4 years
14 months

St Johns Church of England, Wanganui

6743

11 June 1915

H. Reeve, Church of England

No	106
Date of Notice	11 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Leonard Sperring	Elizabeth Olive Tetley-Sagar
BDM Match (94%)	Thomas Leonard Sparring	Elizabeth Olive Tattey-Sagar
	💍 1915/4518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper	Milliner
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	4 years	14 months
Marriage Place	St Johns Church of England, Wanganui
Folio	6743
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1915
Officiating Minister	H. Reeve, Church of England

107

11 June 1915

Douglas St George
Alma Chapman

Douglas St George
Alma Chapman
💍 1915/1888

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Official
Attendant Telephone Exchange

32
21

Wanganui
Wanganui

11 years
21 years

Residence of Mrs Dennehy, 24 Glasgow St, Wanganui

3762

11 June 1915

J. R. Holley, Roman Catholic

No	107
Date of Notice	11 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas St George	Alma Chapman
	💍 1915/1888
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Official	Attendant Telephone Exchange
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Wanganui	Wanganui
Length of Residence	11 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Dennehy, 24 Glasgow St, Wanganui
Folio	3762
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 June 1915
Officiating Minister	J. R. Holley, Roman Catholic

108

12 June 1915

Henry Francis
Eliza Priscilla Abbott

Henry Francis
Eliza Priscilla Abbott
💍 1915/1893

Bachelor
Widow

Labourer
Home duties

39
40

Castlecliff
Castlecliff

5 years
2 years

Registrar's Office, Wanganui

3767

12 June 1915

Chas. E. Hylton, Registrar

No	108
Date of Notice	12 June 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Francis	Eliza Priscilla Abbott
	💍 1915/1893
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Labourer	Home duties
Age	39	40
Dwelling Place	Castlecliff	Castlecliff
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wanganui
Folio	3767
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 June 1915
Officiating Minister	Chas. E. Hylton, 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).