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 1417

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar C. E. Shortt

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

19 January 1916

Walter Fentiman Claughton
Mary Bason

Walter Fentiman Claughton
Mary Bason
💍 1916/3571

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk
Domestic duties

34
28

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

7 years
12 years

St Peter's Church of England Terrace Street Palmerston North

666

19 January 1916

H. G. Blackburne Anglican

No	11
Date of Notice	19 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Fentiman Claughton	Mary Bason
	💍 1916/3571
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk	Domestic duties
Age	34	28
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church of England Terrace Street Palmerston North
Folio	666
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1916
Officiating Minister	H. G. Blackburne Anglican

20 January 1916

Samuel English Carson
Elsie May Nightingale

Samuel English Carson
Elsie May Nightingale
💍 1916/3570

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant
Domestic duties

31
22

Palmerston North
Palmerston North

4 years
14 years

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

665

20 January 1916

H. G. Blackburne Anglican

No	12
Date of Notice	20 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel English Carson	Elsie May Nightingale
	💍 1916/3570
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant	Domestic duties
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Palmerston North	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	4 years	14 years
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	665
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1916
Officiating Minister	H. G. Blackburne Anglican

24 January 1916

Bertram Henderson
Winifred Marguerite Multresaid

Bertram Henderson
Winifred Marguerite Maultsaid
💍 1916/3572

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic

39
29

Rangiotu
Palmerston North

5 weeks
3 days

Registrar's Office Palmerston North

667

24 January 1916

C. E. Shortt Registrar

No	13
Date of Notice	24 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertram Henderson	Winifred Marguerite Multresaid
BDM Match (95%)	Bertram Henderson	Winifred Marguerite Maultsaid
	💍 1916/3572
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic
Age	39	29
Dwelling Place	Rangiotu	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	5 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Palmerston North
Folio	667
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1916
Officiating Minister	C. E. Shortt Registrar

24 January 1916

Percy Stanley Prebble
Kathleen Emma Tharp

Percy Stanley Prebble
Kathleen Emma Harp
💍 1916/3573

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier
Domestic duties

22
25

Rangiotu
Palmerston North

6 weeks
2 weeks

St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North

668

24 January 1916

J. McManus Roman Catholic

No	14
Date of Notice	24 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Stanley Prebble	Kathleen Emma Tharp
BDM Match (95%)	Percy Stanley Prebble	Kathleen Emma Harp
	💍 1916/3573
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier	Domestic duties
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Rangiotu	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church Palmerston North
Folio	668
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1916
Officiating Minister	J. McManus Roman Catholic

24 January 1916

John Moultrie Ferriday
Ida Kate Morley Low

John Moultrie Ferriday
Jura Kate Morley Low
💍 1916/5076

Bachelor
Spinster

Lieutenant on active service
Domestic duties

24
21

Rangiotu
Palmerston North

6 weeks
3 days

All Saints Church of England Palmerston North

2440

24 January 1916

J. R. Burgin Anglican

No	15
Date of Notice	24 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Moultrie Ferriday	Ida Kate Morley Low
BDM Match (93%)	John Moultrie Ferriday	Jura Kate Morley Low
	💍 1916/5076
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lieutenant on active service	Domestic duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Rangiotu	Palmerston North
Length of Residence	6 weeks	3 days
Marriage Place	All Saints Church of England Palmerston North
Folio	2440
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1916
Officiating Minister	J. R. Burgin Anglican

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).