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 1712

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar J. A. Stanhope

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

726

22 July 1916

Laurence Leonard Stewart
Elizabeth Robertson Baxter

Laurence Leonard Stewart
Elizabeth Robertson Baxter
💍 1916/12724

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

31
32

Wellington
Wellington

2.5 years
11 weeks

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4755

22 July 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	726
Date of Notice	22 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Leonard Stewart	Elizabeth Robertson Baxter
	💍 1916/12724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2.5 years	11 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4755
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

727

22 July 1916

Robert Westley Bothamley
Doris Evelyn Dear

Robert Westley Bothamley
Doris Evelyn Gear Bothamley
💍 1916/12725

married 13 April 1915
married 13 April 1915

Soldier

27
25

Featherston
Lower Hutt

2 months
Life

Church of England, Lower Hutt

4757

22 July 1916

Rev. A. L. Hansell

No	727
Date of Notice	22 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Westley Bothamley	Doris Evelyn Dear
BDM Match (80%)	Robert Westley Bothamley	Doris Evelyn Gear Bothamley
	💍 1916/12725
Condition	married 13 April 1915	married 13 April 1915
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 months	Life
Marriage Place	Church of England, Lower Hutt
Folio	4757
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. L. Hansell

728

24 July 1916

Mostyn Leslie Biggs
Muriel Emma Pahl

Mostyn Leslie Biggs
Muriel Emma Pahl
💍 1916/13503

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

23
23

Trentham
Petone

4 months
1 month

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4756

24 July 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	728
Date of Notice	24 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mostyn Leslie Biggs	Muriel Emma Pahl
	💍 1916/13503
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	4 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4756
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

729

24 July 1916

Charles Magnus Cronquist
Isabella Berenice Eggers

Charles Magnus Cronquest
Isabella Berenice Eggers
💍 1916/12726

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
20

Karaka Bay
Karaka Bay

3 years
20 years

Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington

4758

William Farquhar Eggers, father

24 July 1916

Rev. W. A. Evans

No	729
Date of Notice	24 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Magnus Cronquist	Isabella Berenice Eggers
BDM Match (98%)	Charles Magnus Cronquest	Isabella Berenice Eggers
	💍 1916/12726
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Karaka Bay	Karaka Bay
Length of Residence	3 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Congregational Church, Constable Street, Wellington
Folio	4758
Consent	William Farquhar Eggers, father
Date of Certificate	24 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. A. Evans

730

24 July 1916

Alexander Baird McCready
Jessie Henry Atkinson

Alexander Baird McCready
Jessie Henry Atkinson
💍 1916/12727

Bachelor
Widow 8 July 1914

Journalist

46
47

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
3 months

Residence of Mr. W. Morell, 20 Home Street, Wellington

4759

24 July 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	730
Date of Notice	24 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Baird McCready	Jessie Henry Atkinson
	💍 1916/12727
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 8 July 1914
Profession	Journalist
Age	46	47
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Morell, 20 Home Street, Wellington
Folio	4759
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

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).