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 1635

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar G. G. Hodgkins

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

346

12 April 1916

Horace Henry Baumber
Elsie Ellison

Horace Henry Baumber
Elsie Ellison
💍 1916/6535

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Grocer

21
21

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

14 years
life

Wesleyan Church Lower Hutt

4044

12 April 1916

Rev. J. Dawson

No	346
Date of Notice	12 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Henry Baumber	Elsie Ellison
	💍 1916/6535
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Grocer
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	14 years	life
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church Lower Hutt
Folio	4044
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Dawson

347

12 April 1916

Hugh Walter Exton
Margaret Mary Norman

Hugh Walter Exton
Margaret Mary Norman
💍 1916/5059

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

23
23

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

life
12 years

St James' Church Lower Hutt

2397

12 April 1916

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	347
Date of Notice	12 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Walter Exton	Margaret Mary Norman
	💍 1916/5059
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	life	12 years
Marriage Place	St James' Church Lower Hutt
Folio	2397
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

348

12 April 1916

William Henry Butler
Ellen Neylon

William Henry Butler
Ellen Neylon
💍 1916/5060

Bachelor
Widow 2 August 1913

Teacher

45
44

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
7 months

St Joseph's Church Wellington

2398

12 April 1916

Rev. D. Hurley

No	348
Date of Notice	12 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Butler	Ellen Neylon
	💍 1916/5060
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 2 August 1913
Profession	Teacher
Age	45	44
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	7 months
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church Wellington
Folio	2398
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

349

13 April 1916

Ernest Alexander Baldow
Ethel Annie Tause McAlpine

Ernest Alexander Caldow
Ethel Annie Tause McAlpine
💍 1916/492

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

11 years
25 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington

2399

13 April 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	349
Date of Notice	13 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Alexander Baldow	Ethel Annie Tause McAlpine
BDM Match (98%)	Ernest Alexander Caldow	Ethel Annie Tause McAlpine
	💍 1916/492
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	11 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church Wellington
Folio	2399
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

350

13 April 1916

Charles William Henry Colin Holmes
Margaret Rethlingham

Charles William Henry Colin Holmes
Margaret Eltringham
💍 1916/876

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

35
28

Wellington
Wellington

6 months
8 weeks

St Thomas' Church Wellington

6643

13 April 1916

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	350
Date of Notice	13 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles William Henry Colin Holmes	Margaret Rethlingham
BDM Match (90%)	Charles William Henry Colin Holmes	Margaret Eltringham
	💍 1916/876
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	35	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	8 weeks
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church Wellington
Folio	6643
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

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).