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 1566

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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

4 January 1916

William Edwin Swaffer Bonton
Ada Florence Dixon

William Edwin Swaffer Thornton
Ada Florence Dixon
💍 1916/321

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

29
21

Petone
Petone

3 months
11 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON

786

4 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Edwin Swaffer Bonton	Ada Florence Dixon
BDM Match (95%)	William Edwin Swaffer Thornton	Ada Florence Dixon
	💍 1916/321
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 months	11 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON
Folio	786
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

4 January 1916

Vivian Polkinghorne
Delia Crawford

Vivian Polkinghorne
Delia Crawford
💍 1916/322

Widower 31 September 1915
Widow 5 December 1910

Labourer

36
37

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

16 years
23 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON

787

4 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	7
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Vivian Polkinghorne	Delia Crawford
	💍 1916/322
Condition	Widower 31 September 1915	Widow 5 December 1910
Profession	Labourer
Age	36	37
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	16 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON
Folio	787
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

4 January 1916

George William Ireland
Isabel Lucy Shearman

George William Ireland
Isobel Lucy Spearman
💍 1916/4162

Bachelor
Spinster

Indent Agent

21
22

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

7 months
1 month

St. John's Church Wellington

1467

4 January 1916

Rev. J. Gibb

No	8
Date of Notice	4 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George William Ireland	Isabel Lucy Shearman
BDM Match (95%)	George William Ireland	Isobel Lucy Spearman
	💍 1916/4162
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Indent Agent
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	7 months	1 month
Marriage Place	St. John's Church Wellington
Folio	1467
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

5 January 1916

Richard Lindsay Hunter
Amelia Tomson Proctor

Richard Lindsay Hunter
Amelia Thomson Proctor
💍 1916/56

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

27
26

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

3 months
2 years

Residence of Mr. J. Morris, 33 Reuben Avenue Brooklyn

1468

5 January 1916

Rev. B. Hutson

No	9
Date of Notice	5 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Lindsay Hunter	Amelia Tomson Proctor
BDM Match (98%)	Richard Lindsay Hunter	Amelia Thomson Proctor
	💍 1916/56
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	3 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. J. Morris, 33 Reuben Avenue Brooklyn
Folio	1468
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Hutson

5 January 1916

William Foster Bonnors
Laura Smith

William Foster Connors
Laura Smith
💍 1916/4164

Bachelor
Spinster

Dental mechanic

44
41

WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON

9 years
9 years

Roman Catholic Presbytery, Patterson St. Wellington

1469

5 January 1916

Rev. D. Hurley

No	10
Date of Notice	5 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Foster Bonnors	Laura Smith
BDM Match (98%)	William Foster Connors	Laura Smith
	💍 1916/4164
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dental mechanic
Age	44	41
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON	WELLINGTON
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Patterson St. Wellington
Folio	1469
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Hurley

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).