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 1695

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar W. H. 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

646

26 June 1916

Robert Sloan Brown
Florence Laing

Robert Sloan Brown
Florence Laing
💍 1916/5437

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

38
37

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 months

Residence of A. Cameron, 103 Coromandel Street Wellington

2707

26 June 1916

Rev. J. Gibb

No	646
Date of Notice	26 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Sloan Brown	Florence Laing
	💍 1916/5437
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	38	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of A. Cameron, 103 Coromandel Street Wellington
Folio	2707
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

647

26 June 1916

Henry George Ehn Clifford
Caroline Maude Elizabeth Polson

Henry George Ehn Clifford
Caroline Maude Elizabeth Polson
💍 1916/5438

Bachelor
Spinster

Postmaster

39
37

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

4 days
7 days

Residence of Mr. G. W. Haines, Hutt Road Lower Hutt

2708

26 June 1916

Rev. W. Beckett

No	647
Date of Notice	26 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry George Ehn Clifford	Caroline Maude Elizabeth Polson
	💍 1916/5438
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postmaster
Age	39	37
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	4 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. G. W. Haines, Hutt Road Lower Hutt
Folio	2708
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Beckett

648

27 June 1916

James Henry Asher
Doris Wade Petherick

James Henry Aisher
Doris Wade Petherick
💍 1916/5439

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
24 years

Baptist Church, Vivian St., Wellington

2709

27 June 1916

Rev. J. K. Archer

No	648
Date of Notice	27 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Henry Asher	Doris Wade Petherick
BDM Match (97%)	James Henry Aisher	Doris Wade Petherick
	💍 1916/5439
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	24 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian St., Wellington
Folio	2709
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Archer

649

27 June 1916

Robert William McConnell
Ethel May Sheldon

Robert William McConnell
Ethel May Sheldon
💍 1916/5416

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

24
26

Petone
Wellington

3 days
6 years

All Saint's Church, Kelburne

2710

27 June 1916

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	649
Date of Notice	27 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert William McConnell	Ethel May Sheldon
	💍 1916/5416
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Petone	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	All Saint's Church, Kelburne
Folio	2710
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

650

27 June 1916

John Alfred Nuttall
Annie Newman

John Alfred Nuttall
Annie Newman
💍 1916/5417

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

23
17

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
7 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

2711

John Frederick Newman, father

27 June 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	650
Date of Notice	27 June 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Alfred Nuttall	Annie Newman
	💍 1916/5417
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	2711
Consent	John Frederick Newman, father
Date of Certificate	27 June 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).