Intentions to Marry, 1916 Mauriceville to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840466, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1916 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.

1916d contains pages 1381-1802, covering districts from Mauriceville to Wellington

Page 1718

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1916 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

756

4 August 1916

Frederick George Cornelius Fisher
Elsie May Johnson

Frederick George Cornelius Fisher
Elsie May Johnson
💍 1916/12745

Bachelor
Spinster

Mattress maker

20
19

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

20 years
3 years

Presbyterian manse Khandallah

4780

William Fisher, father; Hannah Johnson, mother

4 August 1916

Rev. J. Cumming

No	756
Date of Notice	4 August 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick George Cornelius Fisher	Elsie May Johnson
	💍 1916/12745
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mattress maker
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian manse Khandallah
Folio	4780
Consent	William Fisher, father; Hannah Johnson, mother
Date of Certificate	4 August 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cumming

757

5 August 1916

Howard Edward Jackson
Annie Grace Roydhouse

Howard Edward Jackson
Annie Grace Roydhouse
💍 1916/12746

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist

32
29

Carterton
Wellington

11 years
3 days

St. Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington

4781

5 August 1916

Rev. R. Young

No	757
Date of Notice	5 August 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Howard Edward Jackson	Annie Grace Roydhouse
	💍 1916/12746
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Carterton	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral Wellington
Folio	4781
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Young

758

5 August 1916

Herbert John Edwin Gunn
Elsie Stewart McGowan

Herbert John Edwin Gunn
Elsie Stewart McGowan
💍 1916/8586

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Farmer

30
25

Featherston
Lyall Bay Wellington

8 weeks
6 months

St. James Church Wellington

4782

5 August 1916

Rev. W. Shirer

No	758
Date of Notice	5 August 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Edwin Gunn	Elsie Stewart McGowan
	💍 1916/8586
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Farmer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Lyall Bay Wellington
Length of Residence	8 weeks	6 months
Marriage Place	St. James Church Wellington
Folio	4782
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 August 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

759

8 August 1916

Charles Henry Mudford
Esther Minnie Broudis

Charles Henry Mudford
Esther Minnie Croudis
💍 1916/7192

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 days

St. Peter's Church Wellington

4703

8 August 1916

Rev. H. Watson

No	759
Date of Notice	8 August 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Mudford	Esther Minnie Broudis
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Henry Mudford	Esther Minnie Croudis
	💍 1916/7192
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	4703
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

760

8 August 1916

Charles Selby Robertson
Lucy Brown

Charles Selby Robertson
Lucy Brown
💍 1916/8587

Bachelor
Spinster

Pay Sergeant

31
31

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
6 weeks

The Manse Hill St Wellington

4783

8 August 1916

Rev. J. G. Smith

No	760
Date of Notice	8 August 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Selby Robertson	Lucy Brown
	💍 1916/8587
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pay Sergeant
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	The Manse Hill St Wellington
Folio	4783
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 August 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Smith

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).