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 1761

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar J. R. 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

961

27 October 1916

Reginald Hercules Jonassen
Minnie Louisa Smith

Regil Hercules Jonassen
Minnie Louisa Smith
💍 1916/1659

Bachelor
Spinster

Jeweller

24
22

Wellington
Petone

1 year
life

Residence of Mr. Moody, Patrick Street, Petone

6454

27 October 1916

Rev. A. M. Bean

No	961
Date of Notice	27 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Hercules Jonassen	Minnie Louisa Smith
BDM Match (94%)	Regil Hercules Jonassen	Minnie Louisa Smith
	💍 1916/1659
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jeweller
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	1 year	life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Moody, Patrick Street, Petone
Folio	6454
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Bean

962

27 October 1916

Arthur James Scambary
Mary Mahoney

Arthur James Scambay
Mary Mahoney
💍 1916/1660

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
25 years

St. Anne's Church, Newtown, Wellington

6455

27 October 1916

Rev. D. Devoy

No	962
Date of Notice	27 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur James Scambary	Mary Mahoney
BDM Match (98%)	Arthur James Scambay	Mary Mahoney
	💍 1916/1660
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	25 years
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Newtown, Wellington
Folio	6455
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Devoy

963

27 October 1916

Douglas Home Blackader Bett
Olive Chomeley Love

Douglas Home Blackader Beth
Olive Cholmeley Gore
💍 1916/1661

Bachelor
Spinster

Physician & Surgeon

40
36

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
life

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

6456

27 October 1916

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	963
Date of Notice	27 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Home Blackader Bett	Olive Chomeley Love
BDM Match (91%)	Douglas Home Blackader Beth	Olive Cholmeley Gore
	💍 1916/1661
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Physician & Surgeon
Age	40	36
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	life
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	6456
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

964

27 October 1916

Vincent Mead
Daisy Reade Skinner

Vincent Mead
Daisy Reade Skinner
💍 1916/1662

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

20
24

Khandallah
Khandallah

1 year
life

Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington

6457

Jesse Mead, father

27 October 1916

Rev. W. A. Evans

No	964
Date of Notice	27 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vincent Mead	Daisy Reade Skinner
	💍 1916/1662
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	20	24
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Khandallah
Length of Residence	1 year	life
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington
Folio	6457
Consent	Jesse Mead, father
Date of Certificate	27 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Evans

965

28 October 1916

Olaf Andreas Jacobsen
Margaret Amy Tilyard

Olaf Andreas Jacobsen
Margaret Amy Tilyard
💍 1916/1663

Bachelor
Spinster

Ships officer

28
29

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
15 years

St Thomas' Church, Wellington

6458

28 October 1916

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	965
Date of Notice	28 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Olaf Andreas Jacobsen	Margaret Amy Tilyard
	💍 1916/1663
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ships officer
Age	28	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St Thomas' Church, Wellington
Folio	6458
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

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).