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 1754

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar Jh. Puthenthorpe

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

926

12 October 1916

James Stafford Adams
Beatrice Bourke

James Stafford Adams
Beatrice Bourke
💍 1916/1526

Divorced Decree absolute 29 August 1916.
Spinster

Settler

45
28

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
3 years

Residence of Rev. A. E. Hunt, 14 Ellice Avenue, Wellington.

6418

12 October 1916

Rev. A. E. Hunt.

No	926
Date of Notice	12 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Stafford Adams	Beatrice Bourke
	💍 1916/1526
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 29 August 1916.	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	45	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. A. E. Hunt, 14 Ellice Avenue, Wellington.
Folio	6418
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt.

927

13 October 1916

John Melville
Alice Hester Finch

John Melville
Alice Hester Finch
💍 1916/1842

Bachelor
Divorced Decree absolute 28/2/1916.

Police Constable

41
41

Wellington
Christchurch

7 years
12 years

Residence of Mrs Finch, 242 Manchester Street, Christchurch

6951

13 October 1916

Rev. R. Erwin.

No	927
Date of Notice	13 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Melville	Alice Hester Finch
	💍 1916/1842
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree absolute 28/2/1916.
Profession	Police Constable
Age	41	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Christchurch
Length of Residence	7 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Finch, 242 Manchester Street, Christchurch
Folio	6951
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Erwin.

928

13 October 1916

Charles Buchanan
Winifred Hilda Dear

Charles Buchanan
Winifred Hilda Dear
💍 1916/1527

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk

41
26

Christchurch
Wellington

16 years
7 months

St Paul's Pro-cathedral, Wellington

6419

13 October 1916

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	928
Date of Notice	13 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Buchanan	Winifred Hilda Dear
	💍 1916/1527
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk
Age	41	26
Dwelling Place	Christchurch	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	7 months
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-cathedral, Wellington
Folio	6419
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

929

14 October 1916

Charles Johnston
Mary Cummings Brock

Charles Johnston
Mary Cummings Brock
💍 1916/1529

Bachelor
Spinster

Book-finisher

41
35

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6420

14 October 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	929
Date of Notice	14 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Johnston	Mary Cummings Brock
	💍 1916/1529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Book-finisher
Age	41	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6420
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

930

14 October 1916

Robert Jackson Dales
Rose Alice Grice

Robert Jackson Dales
Rose Alice Grice
💍 1916/1530

Widower 24/8/1909.
married not heard of husband for 13 years

Second Hand Dealer

60
42

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
14 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6421

14 October 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	930
Date of Notice	14 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Jackson Dales	Rose Alice Grice
	💍 1916/1530
Condition	Widower 24/8/1909.	married not heard of husband for 13 years
Profession	Second Hand Dealer
Age	60	42
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6421
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).