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 1652

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar G. G. Hodgkins

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

431

27 April 1916

Richard John Lashley Sharpe
Ethel Gertrude Mills

Richard John Tapley Sharpe
Ethel Gertrude Mills
💍 1916/5386

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyor

23
23

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
7 days

Registrar's Office Wellington

2480

27 April 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	431
Date of Notice	27 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard John Lashley Sharpe	Ethel Gertrude Mills
BDM Match (94%)	Richard John Tapley Sharpe	Ethel Gertrude Mills
	💍 1916/5386
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	7 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	2480
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

432

27 April 1916

Edward Robert Issell
Phoebe Andreina Winstanley

Edward Robert Issell
Phoebe Andrena Winstanley
💍 1916/5387

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
20

Wellington
Wellington

1 day
20 years

Wesley Church Taranaki St. Wellington

2481

Margaret Winstanley, mother

27 April 1916

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	432
Date of Notice	27 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Robert Issell	Phoebe Andreina Winstanley
BDM Match (98%)	Edward Robert Issell	Phoebe Andrena Winstanley
	💍 1916/5387
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 day	20 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki St. Wellington
Folio	2481
Consent	Margaret Winstanley, mother
Date of Certificate	27 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

433

28 April 1916

Joseph Allen Bridger
Evelyn Sarah Trimble

Joseph Allen Bridger
Evelyn Sarah Grimble
💍 1916/5388

Widower 7 May 1915
Spinster

Shepherd

46
35

Lyall Bay
Lyall Bay

3 days
2 years

Residence of Mr. S. L. Hall, 3 Toru St., Lyall Bay

2482

28 April 1916

Rev. J. Richards

No	433
Date of Notice	28 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Allen Bridger	Evelyn Sarah Trimble
BDM Match (98%)	Joseph Allen Bridger	Evelyn Sarah Grimble
	💍 1916/5388
Condition	Widower 7 May 1915	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	46	35
Dwelling Place	Lyall Bay	Lyall Bay
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. S. L. Hall, 3 Toru St., Lyall Bay
Folio	2482
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Richards

434

28 April 1916

William Bourke
Emily Doyle

William Bourke
Emily Doyle
💍 1916/5372

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine Driver

43
35

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 year

Sacred Heart Basilica Wellington

2490

28 April 1916

Rev. P. J. Smyth

No	434
Date of Notice	28 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Bourke	Emily Doyle
	💍 1916/5372
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver
Age	43	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 year
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica Wellington
Folio	2490
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Smyth

435

28 April 1916

Herbert Thompson
Annie Hewitt Garrett

Herbert Thompson
Annie Hewitt Garrett
💍 1916/5373

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

23
23

Trentham
Wellington

20 years
life

Military Camp Trentham

2491

28 April 1916

Rev. D. B. Herron

No	435
Date of Notice	28 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Thompson	Annie Hewitt Garrett
	💍 1916/5373
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	life
Marriage Place	Military Camp Trentham
Folio	2491
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. B. Herron

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).