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 1601

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar Thos. E. 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

181

28 February 1916

John Richard Lloyd Hammond
Beryl Stevens

John Richard Lloyd Hammond
Beryl Stevens
💍 1916/4246

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
21

Wellington
Lower Hutt

1 week
6 weeks

St. James' Church, Lower Hutt

1575

28 February 1916

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	181
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Richard Lloyd Hammond	Beryl Stevens
	💍 1916/4246
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	1 week	6 weeks
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	1575
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

182

28 February 1916

James Edward Atkinson
Hilda Marie Dixon

James Edward Atkinson
Hilda Marie Dixon
💍 1916/8769

Bachelor
Divorced, Decree Absolute 20 January 1916

Farmer

28
29

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
4 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

848

28 February 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	182
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Edward Atkinson	Hilda Marie Dixon
	💍 1916/8769
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced, Decree Absolute 20 January 1916
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	848
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

183

28 February 1916

Herbert Francis Kirk
Hilda Mary Smith

Herbert Francis Kirk
Hilda Mary Smith
💍 1916/4265

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
16 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

1577

28 February 1916

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	183
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Francis Kirk	Hilda Mary Smith
	💍 1916/4265
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	16 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	1577
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

184

28 February 1916

Walter Thomson Brunton
Jane Archibald Wilson

Walter Thomson Brunton
Jane Archibald Wilson
💍 1916/4256

Widower, 14 August 1913
Spinster

Company manager

49
42

Wellington
Melling

29 years
42 years

Residence of Mr. R. M. Wilson, Melling

1586

28 February 1916

Rev. J. M. Craw

No	184
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Thomson Brunton	Jane Archibald Wilson
	💍 1916/4256
Condition	Widower, 14 August 1913	Spinster
Profession	Company manager
Age	49	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Melling
Length of Residence	29 years	42 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. R. M. Wilson, Melling
Folio	1586
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Craw

185

28 February 1916

Sydney Roy Skilling
Jessie Louisa Harley

Sydney Roy Shilling
Jessie Louisa Harley
💍 1916/4273

Bachelor
Spinster

Foreman leather worker

27
23

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
3 years

Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington

1579

28 February 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	185
Date of Notice	28 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Roy Skilling	Jessie Louisa Harley
BDM Match (97%)	Sydney Roy Shilling	Jessie Louisa Harley
	💍 1916/4273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Foreman leather worker
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse, 35 Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	1579
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 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).