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 1764

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar J. G. Palethorpe

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

976

31 October 1916

John Frederick Burton
Effie Isabel Bentley

John Frederick Burton
Effie Isabel Bentley
💍 1916/1650

Bachelor
Spinster

Salesman

31
23

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
Life

St. Anne's Church Northland

6469

31 October 1916

Rev. C. H. Harvey

No	976
Date of Notice	31 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Frederick Burton	Effie Isabel Bentley
	💍 1916/1650
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salesman
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church Northland
Folio	6469
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. H. Harvey

977

1 November 1916

Clifford Verner Little
Margaret Mary Heeney

Clifford Verne Little
Margaret Mary Leeney
💍 1916/1651

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

20
21

Fort Ballance
Wellington

Life
5 years

St. Joseph's Church Buckle St. Wellington

6470

Lina Leese, mother

1 November 1916

Rev. J. F. O'Connor

No	977
Date of Notice	1 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Clifford Verner Little	Margaret Mary Heeney
BDM Match (95%)	Clifford Verne Little	Margaret Mary Leeney
	💍 1916/1651
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Fort Ballance	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle St. Wellington
Folio	6470
Consent	Lina Leese, mother
Date of Certificate	1 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. O'Connor

978

1 November 1916

Christian Long
Flora Milne

Christian Long
Flora Milne
💍 1916/1653

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

33
32

Trentham
Wellington

6 months
10 years

Presbyterian manse 35 Pine St. Wellington

6471

1 November 1916

Rev. J. H. Elliott

No	978
Date of Notice	1 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christian Long	Flora Milne
	💍 1916/1653
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	33	32
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 months	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian manse 35 Pine St. Wellington
Folio	6471
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Elliott

979

2 November 1916

Bertram Charles Annand
Mary Josephine Roughan

Bertram Charles Annand
Mary Josephine Rougham
💍 1916/1654

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Engineer

25
24

Trentham
Wellington

3 months
3 days

St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington

6472

2 November 1916

Rev. D. Hurley

No	979
Date of Notice	2 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Bertram Charles Annand	Mary Josephine Roughan
BDM Match (98%)	Bertram Charles Annand	Mary Josephine Rougham
	💍 1916/1654
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Engineer
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church Buckle Street Wellington
Folio	6472
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

980

2 November 1916

Arthur Winkley Phillips
Elsie Davies

Arthur Nuikley Phillips
Elsie Davies
💍 1916/1655

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil servant

29
29

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
6 years

St. James' Church Wellington

6473

2 November 1916

Rev. W. Shirer

No	980
Date of Notice	2 November 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Winkley Phillips	Elsie Davies
BDM Match (94%)	Arthur Nuikley Phillips	Elsie Davies
	💍 1916/1655
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil servant
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Church Wellington
Folio	6473
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 November 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

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).