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 1756

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1916 Registrar J. H. Reathorpe

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

936

17 October 1916

Tobias Parnell
Maria Charlotte Allum

Tobias Parnell
Maria Charlotte Allum
💍 1916/1553

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

31
32

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
2 weeks

St. John's Church, Wellington

6427

17 October 1916

Rev. J. Gibb

No	936
Date of Notice	17 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Tobias Parnell	Maria Charlotte Allum
	💍 1916/1553
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	6427
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

937

18 October 1916

Arthur George Hugh Hughes
Doris Margaret Waterton Austin

Arthur George Hugh Hughes
Doris Margaret Waterton Austin
💍 1916/1560

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

22
18

Wellington
Wellington

19 years
10 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

6428

Richard John Carter Austin, father

18 October 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	937
Date of Notice	18 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur George Hugh Hughes	Doris Margaret Waterton Austin
	💍 1916/1560
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	6428
Consent	Richard John Carter Austin, father
Date of Certificate	18 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

938

18 October 1916

George Walsh
Grace William

George Walsh
Grace Gwilliam
💍 1916/1561

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

27
29

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
5 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington

6429

18 October 1916

Rev. D. Hurley

No	938
Date of Notice	18 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Walsh	Grace William
BDM Match (93%)	George Walsh	Grace Gwilliam
	💍 1916/1561
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	27	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington
Folio	6429
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

939

19 October 1916

Percy Henry Dwight
Bertha May Randall

Percy Henry Dwight
Bertha May Randall
💍 1916/1562

Widower 27/11/1914
Divorced Decree Absolute 18/10/1916

Railways Employee

34
35

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
1 week

Registrar's Office, Wellington

6430

19 October 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	939
Date of Notice	19 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percy Henry Dwight	Bertha May Randall
	💍 1916/1562
Condition	Widower 27/11/1914	Divorced Decree Absolute 18/10/1916
Profession	Railways Employee
Age	34	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	6430
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

940

19 October 1916

Henry John Pellbrow
Mary Eliza Pellbrow

Henry John Pilbrow
Mary Eliza Pilbrow
💍 1916/1563

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Stoker

49
45

Wellington
Wellington

13 years
1 week

St John's Manse, 328 Terrace, Wellington

6431

19 October 1916

Rev. J. Gibb

No	940
Date of Notice	19 October 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry John Pellbrow	Mary Eliza Pellbrow
BDM Match (90%)	Henry John Pilbrow	Mary Eliza Pilbrow
	💍 1916/1563
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Stoker
Age	49	45
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	13 years	1 week
Marriage Place	St John's Manse, 328 Terrace, Wellington
Folio	6431
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 October 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

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).