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 1704

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1916 Registrar J. H. Thorpe

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

686

7 July 1916

Cecil James Schwass
Margaret May Rose McFarlane

Cecil James Schwass
Margaret May Rose McFarlane
💍 1916/7198

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
24

Wellington
Wellington

2 days
10 weeks

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

4709

7 July 1916

Rev. H. W. Thomson

No	686
Date of Notice	7 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Cecil James Schwass	Margaret May Rose McFarlane
	💍 1916/7198
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 days	10 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	4709
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Thomson

687

7 July 1916

Leslie James Connally
Frances Evelyn Millard

Leslie James Connolly
Frances Evelyn Millard
💍 1916/7176

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

4710

7 July 1916

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	687
Date of Notice	7 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie James Connally	Frances Evelyn Millard
BDM Match (98%)	Leslie James Connolly	Frances Evelyn Millard
	💍 1916/7176
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	4710
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

688

8 July 1916

Samuel Morley Parry
Ella Dorothy Newman

Samuel Morley Parry
Ella Dorothy Newman
💍 1916/7177

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

25
22

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
2 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

4711

8 July 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	688
Date of Notice	8 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Morley Parry	Ella Dorothy Newman
	💍 1916/7177
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	2 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	4711
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

689

8 July 1916

Geoffrey Mears
Ethel Maude Reka Wilson

Geoffrey Mears
Ethel Maude Reka Wilson
💍 1916/8583

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

19
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
14 years

Residence of Mr. T. C. Wilson, 83 Fairlie Terrace, Wellington

4712

Alice Mears, mother & guardian; Thomas Clark Wilson, father

8 July 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	689
Date of Notice	8 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Geoffrey Mears	Ethel Maude Reka Wilson
	💍 1916/8583
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	19	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. T. C. Wilson, 83 Fairlie Terrace, Wellington
Folio	4712
Consent	Alice Mears, mother & guardian; Thomas Clark Wilson, father
Date of Certificate	8 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

690

8 July 1916

Henry Charles Gillespie commonly known as Needham
Rhoda Ellen Mence

Henry Charles Needham
Rhoda Ellen Mence
💍 1916/7178

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

31
22

Wellington
Wellington

31 years
4 years

Methodist Manse, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington

4713

8 July 1916

Rev. G. S. Smith

No	690
Date of Notice	8 July 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Charles Gillespie commonly known as Needham	Rhoda Ellen Mence
BDM Match (71%)	Henry Charles Needham	Rhoda Ellen Mence
	💍 1916/7178
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	31 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Manse, 21 Hankey Street, Wellington
Folio	4713
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 July 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. S. Smith

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).