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 1573

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. G. Palethorpe

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

15 January 1916

Claude Bertram Nicholls
Mabel Whatley

Claude Bertram Nicholls
Mabel Whatley
💍 1916/333

Bachelor
Spinster

Fellmonger

27
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
6 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

797

15 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	41
Date of Notice	15 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Claude Bertram Nicholls	Mabel Whatley
	💍 1916/333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fellmonger
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	797
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

15 January 1916

Edward James Flux
Violet Copeman

Edward James Flux
Violet Copeman
💍 1916/4286

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

27
21

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

23 years
21 years

Church of England Lower Hutt

1491

15 January 1916

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	42
Date of Notice	15 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward James Flux	Violet Copeman
	💍 1916/4286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	23 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Church of England Lower Hutt
Folio	1491
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

15 January 1916

James Michael Fleming
Mary Courtney Cunningham

James Michael Fleming
Mary Courtney
💍 1916/4287

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

28
26

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
2 weeks

Sacred Heart Basilica Wellington

1492

15 January 1916

Rev. P. J. Smyth

No	43
Date of Notice	15 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Michael Fleming	Mary Courtney Cunningham
BDM Match (77%)	James Michael Fleming	Mary Courtney
	💍 1916/4287
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica Wellington
Folio	1492
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth

17 January 1916

Heinrich Franz Vosseler
Jessie Letitia Hawkins

Heinrich Franz Vosseler
Jessie Letitia Hawkins
💍 1916/4288

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

30
25

Makara
Makara

3 days
Life

Church of England Makara

1493

17 January 1916

Rev. G. Y. Woodward

No	44
Date of Notice	17 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Heinrich Franz Vosseler	Jessie Letitia Hawkins
	💍 1916/4288
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Makara	Makara
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	Church of England Makara
Folio	1493
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Y. Woodward

17 January 1916

Henry Albert Ernest Styles
Harriet Alice Lawrence

Henry Albert Ernest Styles
Harriet Alice Lawrence
💍 1916/4289

Widower 20 July 1915
Widow 29 August 1909

Driver

40
50

Petone
Petone

40 years
30 years

Residence of Mrs Lawrence, Udy Street, Petone

1494

17 January 1916

Mr. H. Grinstead

No	45
Date of Notice	17 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Albert Ernest Styles	Harriet Alice Lawrence
	💍 1916/4289
Condition	Widower 20 July 1915	Widow 29 August 1909
Profession	Driver
Age	40	50
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	40 years	30 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Lawrence, Udy Street, Petone
Folio	1494
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Mr. H. Grinstead

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).