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 1705

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar J. H. Featherston

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

691

8 July 1916

Walter Bird
Elsie May Russell

Walter Bird
Elsie May Russell
💍 1916/7179

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer's Assistant

26
21

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
8 months

Residence of Mr. R. Henderson, 60 Hill St, Wellington

4714

8 July 1916

Rev. J. G. Smith

No	691
Date of Notice	8 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Bird	Elsie May Russell
	💍 1916/7179
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer's Assistant
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	8 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. R. Henderson, 60 Hill St, Wellington
Folio	4714
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Smith

692

10 July 1916

Frederick Richard Coulson
Lillian May Easthope

Frederick Richard Coulson
Lillian May Easthope
💍 1916/8605

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheep Station manager

26
20

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Thomas' Church Wellington

6272

no person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent.

24 July 1916

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	692
Date of Notice	10 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Richard Coulson	Lillian May Easthope
	💍 1916/8605
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheep Station manager
Age	26	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church Wellington
Folio	6272
Consent	no person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent.
Date of Certificate	24 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

693

10 July 1916

Frederick Leslie Howard
Sara Emily Barnett

Frederick Leslie Howard
Sara Emily Barnitt
💍 1916/7180

Widower 2 November 1912
Spinster

Electrician

42
32

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
5 years

Methodist Church Webb St., Wellington

4715

10 July 1916

Rev. G. S. Smith

No	693
Date of Notice	10 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Leslie Howard	Sara Emily Barnett
BDM Match (97%)	Frederick Leslie Howard	Sara Emily Barnitt
	💍 1916/7180
Condition	Widower 2 November 1912	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	42	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church Webb St., Wellington
Folio	4715
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Smith

694

10 July 1916

George Bloake
Elizabeth Williams

George Cloake
Elizabeth Williams
💍 1916/7181

Widower 3 October 1904
Widow 15 September 1905

Bootmaker

67
57

Wellington
Wellington

51 years
8 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

4716

10 July 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	694
Date of Notice	10 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Bloake	Elizabeth Williams
BDM Match (96%)	George Cloake	Elizabeth Williams
	💍 1916/7181
Condition	Widower 3 October 1904	Widow 15 September 1905
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	67	57
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	51 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	4716
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

695

10 July 1916

Francis Dominic Gaffaney
Annie Hale

Francis Dominick Gaffaney
Annie Hale
💍 1916/7182

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

34
26

Trentham
Petone

7 months
6 weeks

Roman Catholic Church Petone

4717

10 July 1916

Rev. P. Quealy

No	695
Date of Notice	10 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Dominic Gaffaney	Annie Hale
BDM Match (98%)	Francis Dominick Gaffaney	Annie Hale
	💍 1916/7182
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	34	26
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	7 months	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Petone
Folio	4717
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Quealy

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).