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 1536

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 March 1915 Registrar C. Shorth

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

27 January 1915

William Thomas Murdoch
Ellen Catherine Josephine O'Shea

William Thomas Murdoch
Ellen Catherine Josephine O'Shea
💍 1915/8960

Bachelor
Spinster

Window Trimmer
Dental Nurse

24
18

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 months

St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North

1136

No one in Dominion having authority to give consent

10 February 1915

Rev. J. MacManus Roman Catholic

No	6
Date of Notice	27 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Murdoch	Ellen Catherine Josephine O'Shea
	💍 1915/8960
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Window Trimmer	Dental Nurse
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North
Folio	1136
Consent	No one in Dominion having authority to give consent
Date of Certificate	10 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. MacManus Roman Catholic

27 January 1915

Walter Kilkolly
Ida Anna Margaret Johnson

Walter Kilkolly
Ida Anna Margaret Johnson
💍 1915/8849

Bachelor
Spinster

Groom
Housemaid

23
24

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

4 months
9 months

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

1123

27 January 1915

Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

No	7
Date of Notice	27 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Kilkolly	Ida Anna Margaret Johnson
	💍 1915/8849
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom	Housemaid
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	4 months	9 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	1123
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

29 January 1915

Bertram Archibald Thurston Grove Cowley Nicolson
Lilian Josephine Creighton

Bertram Archibald Thurston Grove Cowley Nicolson
Lilian Josephine Creighton
💍 1915/8850

Bachelor
Spinster

Scutcher
Hospital Nurse

46
36

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

1124

29 January 1915

Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

No	8
Date of Notice	29 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertram Archibald Thurston Grove Cowley Nicolson	Lilian Josephine Creighton
	💍 1915/8850
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Scutcher	Hospital Nurse
Age	46	36
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	1124
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

29 January 1915

William Osborne Liggins
Amy Agnes Hart

William Osborne Liggins
Amy Agnes Hart
💍 1915/8851

Bachelor
Spinster

Sergeant Major P. S. N. Z. Forces
Costumier

35
35

Palmerston North
London England

3 months
1 year

All Saints Anglican Church Palmerston North

1125

29 January 1915

Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

No	9
Date of Notice	29 January 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Osborne Liggins	Amy Agnes Hart
	💍 1915/8851
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sergeant Major P. S. N. Z. Forces	Costumier
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	London England
Length of Residence	3 months	1 year
Marriage Place	All Saints Anglican Church Palmerston North
Folio	1125
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 January 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Rosher Anglican

8 February 1915

Eugene Charles Baddock
Norah Spillane

Eugene Charles Haddock
Norah Spillans
💍 1915/8961

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder & Contractor
Domestic Duties

30
25

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

3 days
3 days

St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North

1137

8 February 1915

Rev. M. Doolaghty Roman Catholic

No	10
Date of Notice	8 February 1915
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eugene Charles Baddock	Norah Spillane
BDM Match (94%)	Eugene Charles Haddock	Norah Spillans
	💍 1915/8961
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder & Contractor	Domestic Duties
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North
Folio	1137
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1915
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Doolaghty Roman Catholic

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).