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 1691

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar A. J. Pinhorpe

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

626

19 June 1916

Herbert Sydney Box
Ellen Louise Woolsey

Herbert Sydney Cox
Ellen Louise Woolsey
💍 1916/5350

Bachelor
Spinster

mariner

34
32

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

3 days
3 days

Residence of [illlegible] Mrs. Williamson, Tiber St. Island Bay

2693

19 June 1916

Rev. R. Wood

No	626
Date of Notice	19 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Sydney Box	Ellen Louise Woolsey
BDM Match (97%)	Herbert Sydney Cox	Ellen Louise Woolsey
	💍 1916/5350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	mariner
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of [illlegible] Mrs. Williamson, Tiber St. Island Bay
Folio	2693
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Wood

627

20 June 1916

Walter John Abbott
Emily Batton

Walter John Abbott
Emily Cotton
💍 1916/5351

Bachelor
Spinster

Wharf Labourer

23
25

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

5 months
7 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON

2694

20 June 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	627
Date of Notice	20 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Abbott	Emily Batton
BDM Match (92%)	Walter John Abbott	Emily Cotton
	💍 1916/5351
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wharf Labourer
Age	23	25
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	5 months	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON
Folio	2694
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

628

20 June 1916

Gordon Hillier
Myrtle Pritchard

Gordon Hillyer
Myrtle Pritchard
💍 1916/5899

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
26

Trentham
Maranui WELLINGTON

18 months
3 years

St. Anne's Church WELLINGTON

3255

20 June 1916

Rev. J Devoy

No	628
Date of Notice	20 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Hillier	Myrtle Pritchard
BDM Match (96%)	Gordon Hillyer	Myrtle Pritchard
	💍 1916/5899
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Maranui WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	18 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church WELLINGTON
Folio	3255
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J Devoy

629

20 June 1916

Thomas Webb
Ellen Moore

Thomas Webb
Ellen Moore
💍 1916/5352

Bachelor
Spinster

Electric Lineman

33
38

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

3 days
9 months

St. Mary of the Angels Church WELLINGTON

2695

20 June 1916

Rev. C. Kimbell

No	629
Date of Notice	20 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Webb	Ellen Moore
	💍 1916/5352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electric Lineman
Age	33	38
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	3 days	9 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary of the Angels Church WELLINGTON
Folio	2695
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Kimbell

630

20 June 1916

Arthur Liggett Mitchell
Winifred Belsine Taylor Lawrence

Arthur Liggett Mitchell
Winifred Belaine Taylor Lawrence
💍 1916/7153

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
22

Featherston
WELLINGTON

3 months
5 years

Residence of Mrs. Morton, 15 Portland Crescent WELLINGTON

4651

20 June 1916

Rev. J G. Smith

No	630
Date of Notice	20 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Liggett Mitchell	Winifred Belsine Taylor Lawrence
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur Liggett Mitchell	Winifred Belaine Taylor Lawrence
	💍 1916/7153
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	22
Dwelling Place	Featherston	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	3 months	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Morton, 15 Portland Crescent WELLINGTON
Folio	4651
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J G. Smith

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).