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 1642

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1916 Registrar J. G. Etherington

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

381

19 April 1916

William Puki Smith
Dorothy Gwyndoline Little

Wi Puki Smith
Dorothy Gwyndoline Little
💍 1916/5070

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

21
19

Wellington
Wellington

12 years
12 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

2426

Fanny Morris, mother

19 April 1916

Rev. H. Watson

No	381
Date of Notice	19 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Puki Smith	Dorothy Gwyndoline Little
BDM Match (86%)	Wi Puki Smith	Dorothy Gwyndoline Little
	💍 1916/5070
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	2426
Consent	Fanny Morris, mother
Date of Certificate	19 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

382

20 April 1916

Edgar Greenwood
Margaret Smith French

Edgar Greenwood
Margaret Smith Trench
💍 1916/11212

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinetmaker

22
22

Wellington
Wellington

3 months
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

2427

20 April 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	382
Date of Notice	20 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edgar Greenwood	Margaret Smith French
BDM Match (98%)	Edgar Greenwood	Margaret Smith Trench
	💍 1916/11212
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinetmaker
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	2427
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

383

20 April 1916

Donald Murray McKenzie
Caroline Jane Ogg

Donald Murray McKenzie
Caroline Jane Ogg
💍 1916/5088

Bachelor
Widow (13 November 1912)

Carpenter

51
48

Petone
Petone

11 months
4 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

2428

20 April 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	383
Date of Notice	20 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Murray McKenzie	Caroline Jane Ogg
	💍 1916/5088
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (13 November 1912)
Profession	Carpenter
Age	51	48
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	11 months	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	2428
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

384

20 April 1916

William Henry McEwan
Margaret Aloysius Donnelly

William Henry McKewan
Margaret Aloysius Donnelly
💍 1916/5089

Widower (24 May 1899)
Spinster

Engineer

40
37

Trentham
Wellington

6 weeks
6 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

2429

20 April 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	384
Date of Notice	20 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry McEwan	Margaret Aloysius Donnelly
BDM Match (95%)	William Henry McKewan	Margaret Aloysius Donnelly
	💍 1916/5089
Condition	Widower (24 May 1899)	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	40	37
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 weeks	6 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	2429
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

385

20 April 1916

Alfred Edward Allan Aldridge
Coral Alice Elsie Walker

Alfred Edward Allan Aldridge
Coral Alice Elsie Walker
💍 1916/5090

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist

22
20

Trentham
Wellington

3 years
life

Church of England, Kelburn

2430

Alice Norah Walker, mother

20 April 1916

Rev. A. W. Payne

No	385
Date of Notice	20 April 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Allan Aldridge	Coral Alice Elsie Walker
	💍 1916/5090
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	life
Marriage Place	Church of England, Kelburn
Folio	2430
Consent	Alice Norah Walker, mother
Date of Certificate	20 April 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. W. Payne

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).