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 1574

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. H. Renthorpe

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

17 January 1916

Sidney Oswald Schuster
May Eileen Chittick

Sidney Oswald Schuster
May Eileen Chittick
💍 1916/4291

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

24
22

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

15 years
9 years

Knox Church, Lower Hutt

1495

17 January 1916

Rev. J. McCaw

No	46
Date of Notice	17 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sidney Oswald Schuster	May Eileen Chittick
	💍 1916/4291
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	15 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Knox Church, Lower Hutt
Folio	1495
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McCaw

18 January 1916

William Marshall
Ellen Agnes Sim

William Marshall
Ellen Agnes Sim
💍 1916/4292

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraph Lineman

22
21

Wellington
Tawa Flat

3 days
21 years

St. James' Church, Wellington

1496

18 January 1916

Rev. W. Shirer

No	47
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Marshall	Ellen Agnes Sim
	💍 1916/4292
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraph Lineman
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Tawa Flat
Length of Residence	3 days	21 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Wellington
Folio	1496
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

18 January 1916

Reginald Henry Dodson
Eleanor Stoddart Mitchell

Reginald Henry Dodson
Eleanor Stoddart Mitchell
💍 1916/4293

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier (Member N.Z. Expeditionary Force)

21
22

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
8 days

St. John's Church, Wellington

1497

18 January 1916

Rev. J. G. Smith

No	48
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Henry Dodson	Eleanor Stoddart Mitchell
	💍 1916/4293
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier (Member N.Z. Expeditionary Force)
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	8 days
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	1497
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Smith

18 January 1916

William Ingram Handley
Margaret Katherine Hayes

William Ingram Handley
Margaret Katherine Hayes
💍 1916/334

Widower 12 Jan 1900
Spinster

Miner

39
35

Petone
Island Bay

5 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

798

18 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	49
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Ingram Handley	Margaret Katherine Hayes
	💍 1916/334
Condition	Widower 12 Jan 1900	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	39	35
Dwelling Place	Petone	Island Bay
Length of Residence	5 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	798
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

18 January 1916

Arnold Edwin Glensor
Dorothy Ella Wright

Arnold Edwin Glensor
Dorothy Ella Wright
💍 1916/4294

Bachelor
Spinster

Tramway Motorman

26
21

Wellington
Island Bay

3 years
4 years

Trinity Methodist Church, Riddiford St., Wellington

1498

18 January 1916

Rev. J. Richards

No	50
Date of Notice	18 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arnold Edwin Glensor	Dorothy Ella Wright
	💍 1916/4294
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tramway Motorman
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Island Bay
Length of Residence	3 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Methodist Church, Riddiford St., Wellington
Folio	1498
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Richards

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).