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 1587

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

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

111

8 February 1916

Leopold Cecil Morgan
Mona Marion Robinson

Leopold Cecil Morgan
Mona Marion Robinson
💍 1916/8977

Bachelor
Spinster

Architect

31
26

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
19 years

St Mark's Church Wellington

1531

8 February 1916

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	111
Date of Notice	8 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leopold Cecil Morgan	Mona Marion Robinson
	💍 1916/8977
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Architect
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	19 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	1531
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

112

8 February 1916

Orlando Dryden
Edith Mary Lynatt

Orlando Dryden
Edith Mary Lynott
💍 1916/8978

Bachelor
Spinster

Business manager

24
41

Wellington
Wellington

9 months
1 day (from Australia)

Methodist Church, Molesworth Street Wellington

1532

8 February 1916

Rev. G. S. Cook

No	112
Date of Notice	8 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Orlando Dryden	Edith Mary Lynatt
BDM Match (97%)	Orlando Dryden	Edith Mary Lynott
	💍 1916/8978
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Business manager
Age	24	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	1 day (from Australia)
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Molesworth Street Wellington
Folio	1532
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Cook

113

8 February 1916

James Andrew Ash
Ethel Enas Davenport

James Andrew Ash
Ethel Ensa Devenport
💍 1916/3525

Bachelor
Spinster

Loco Fireman N.Z.R.

23
23

Wellington
Masterton

18 months
life

Knox Church Masterton

627

8 February 1916

Rev. G. T. Brown

No	113
Date of Notice	8 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Andrew Ash	Ethel Enas Davenport
BDM Match (93%)	James Andrew Ash	Ethel Ensa Devenport
	💍 1916/3525
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Loco Fireman N.Z.R.
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Masterton
Length of Residence	18 months	life
Marriage Place	Knox Church Masterton
Folio	627
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. T. Brown

114

8 February 1916

George Robinson
Constance Muriel Fanzelow
commonly known as Russ

George Robinson
Constance Muriel Russ
💍 1916/8979

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
8 days

Church of Christ, Vivian St., Wellington

16/1533

8 February 1916

Snr. W. Phillips

No	114
Date of Notice	8 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Robinson	Constance Muriel Fanzelow commonly known as Russ
BDM Match (84%)	George Robinson	Constance Muriel Russ
	💍 1916/8979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	8 days
Marriage Place	Church of Christ, Vivian St., Wellington
Folio	16/1533
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Snr. W. Phillips

115

9 February 1916

Alfred Henry Duating
Catherine Matilda Henderson

Alfred Henry Dusting
Catherine Matilda Henderson
💍 1916/8980

Bachelor
Spinster

Fish Merchant

29
32

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 week

Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace Wellington

1534

9 February 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	115
Date of Notice	9 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Henry Duating	Catherine Matilda Henderson
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Henry Dusting	Catherine Matilda Henderson
	💍 1916/8980
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fish Merchant
Age	29	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 week
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace Wellington
Folio	1534
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

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).