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 1741

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

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

871

21 September 1916

Percy James Edward Smith
Isabel Annie Brown

Percy James Edward Smith
Isabel Annie Brown
💍 1916/871

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

19
21

Wellington
Wellington

Life
Life

Registrar's Office Wellington

6633

no person in NZ authorized by law to give consent

16 October 1916

Registrar

No	871
Date of Notice	21 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy James Edward Smith	Isabel Annie Brown
	💍 1916/871
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	19	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	6633
Consent	no person in NZ authorized by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	16 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Registrar

872

21 September 1916

Francis Levison Gower
Helen Martha Woollett

Francis Levison Gower
Helen Martha Woollett
💍 1916/7361

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

33
27

Petone
Petone

10 years
2 1/2 years

St David's Church Petone

4900

21 September 1916

Rev. A. B. Todd

No	872
Date of Notice	21 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Levison Gower	Helen Martha Woollett
	💍 1916/7361
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	33	27
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	10 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St David's Church Petone
Folio	4900
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. B. Todd

873

21 September 1916

Hedley Victor Evens
Robina Martin

Hedley Victor Evens
Robina Martin
💍 1916/1495

Bachelor
Spinster

Master Chemist

46
37

Wellington
Wellington

39 years
Life

Residence of Mr Evens, 38 Manners Street Wellington

6265

21 September 1916

Rev. J. H. Elliott

No	873
Date of Notice	21 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hedley Victor Evens	Robina Martin
	💍 1916/1495
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Master Chemist
Age	46	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	39 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr Evens, 38 Manners Street Wellington
Folio	6265
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott

874

22 September 1916

Cecil Walter Pirie
Dorothea Margaret Beveridge Fleming

Cecil Walter Pirie
Dorothea Margaret Beveridge Fleming
💍 1916/7271

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

39
30

Wellington
Wellington

10 days
3 years

St Mark's Church Wellington

4901

22 September 1916

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	874
Date of Notice	22 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil Walter Pirie	Dorothea Margaret Beveridge Fleming
	💍 1916/7271
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	39	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 days	3 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church Wellington
Folio	4901
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

875

22 September 1916

Stanley Victor Master
Elizabeth Richards Toman

Stanley Victor Masters
Elizabeth Richards Toman
💍 1916/7282

Bachelor
Spinster

Wholesale Pastry-cook

22
21

Island Bay
Wellington

10 years
6 months

Presbyterian Manse Kilbirnie

4902

22 September 1916

Rev. H. B. Beggs

No	875
Date of Notice	22 September 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stanley Victor Master	Elizabeth Richards Toman
BDM Match (98%)	Stanley Victor Masters	Elizabeth Richards Toman
	💍 1916/7282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wholesale Pastry-cook
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Island Bay	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Manse Kilbirnie
Folio	4902
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 September 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. B. Beggs

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).