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 1752

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 December 1916 Registrar 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

916

10 October 1916

Douglas Bray
Amy Alice Salvador

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

36
30

Wellington
Gisborne

13 years
20 years

Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne

8179

10 October 1916

Rev. H. S. Pache

No	916
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Bray	Amy Alice Salvador
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	36	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Gisborne
Length of Residence	13 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Holy Trinity Church, Gisborne
Folio	8179
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. S. Pache

917

10 October 1916

Thomas Pierard
Constance Violet May Woods Johnston

Thomas Pierard
Constance Violet May Woods Johnston
💍 1916/1541

Bachelor
Spinster

Draughtsman

29
29

Wellington
Wellington

29 years
2 years

St Anne's Church, Wellington

6409

10 October 1916

Rev. W. J. Peoples

No	917
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Pierard	Constance Violet May Woods Johnston
	💍 1916/1541
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draughtsman
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	29 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St Anne's Church, Wellington
Folio	6409
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. J. Peoples

918

10 October 1916

Allan Francis Ambridge
Agnes Isabella Brown

Allan Francis Ambridge
Agnes Isabella Brown
💍 1916/1518

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

36
38

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
6 days

St John's Church, Wellington

6410

10 October 1916

Rev. J. Gibb

No	918
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Allan Francis Ambridge	Agnes Isabella Brown
	💍 1916/1518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	36	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	6 days
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Wellington
Folio	6410
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

919

10 October 1916

Francis Bonnell
Margaret Black

Francis Connell
Margaret Clack
💍 1916/1519

Bachelor
Widow (13 September 1909)

Labourer

39
39

Wellington
Wellington

9 days
9 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6411

10 October 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	919
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Bonnell	Margaret Black
BDM Match (93%)	Francis Connell	Margaret Clack
	💍 1916/1519
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (13 September 1909)
Profession	Labourer
Age	39	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 days	9 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6411
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

920

10 October 1916

James Campbell McDowall
Alice Besant

James Campbell McDowall
Alice Besant
💍 1916/1520

Bachelor
Spinster

Research chemist

28
27

Wellington
Wellington

2 days (from Sydney, N.S.W.)
10 years

St Mark's Church, Wellington

6412

10 October 1916

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	920
Date of Notice	10 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Campbell McDowall	Alice Besant
	💍 1916/1520
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Research chemist
Age	28	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days (from Sydney, N.S.W.)	10 years
Marriage Place	St Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	6412
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

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).