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 1594

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

146

18 February 1916

Alexander McDonald
Margaret Mabel Isabel Stapleton

Alexander McDonald
Margaret Mabel Isabel Stapleton
💍 1916/13268

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrician

20
18

Lower Hutt
Wellington

life
17 years

Methodist Parsonage, 217 Hankey Street, Wellington

4508

Peter McDonald father, Caroline Forrest Cooper mother

18 February 1916

Rev. J. K. Smith

No	146
Date of Notice	18 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander McDonald	Margaret Mabel Isabel Stapleton
	💍 1916/13268
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrician
Age	20	18
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	life	17 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 217 Hankey Street, Wellington
Folio	4508
Consent	Peter McDonald father, Caroline Forrest Cooper mother
Date of Certificate	18 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Smith

147

18 February 1916

Hugh McKay Guthrie
Louisa Harriett Henderson

Hugh McKay Guthrie
Louisa Harriett Henderson
💍 1916/8757

Bachelor
Widow 7 October 1911

mariner

41
41

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
17 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

837

18 February 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	147
Date of Notice	18 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh McKay Guthrie	Louisa Harriett Henderson
	💍 1916/8757
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 7 October 1911
Profession	mariner
Age	41	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	17 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	837
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

148

18 February 1916

Patrick Joseph Kennedy
Pearl Jasmine Jordan

Patrick Joseph Kennedy
Pearl Jasmine Jordan
💍 1916/4248

Bachelor
Spinster

Fire Brigademan

27
20

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
12 weeks

St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington

1554

No person in NZ authorized by law to give consent

3 March 1916

Rev. S. Venning

No	148
Date of Notice	18 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Joseph Kennedy	Pearl Jasmine Jordan
	💍 1916/4248
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fire Brigademan
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	12 weeks
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels Church, Wellington
Folio	1554
Consent	No person in NZ authorized by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Venning

149

19 February 1916

Frederick Thomas Russell
Doris Josephine Edlund

Frederick Thomas Russell
Doris Josephine Edlund
💍 1916/4249

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

25
22

Wellington
Wellington

life
life

Residence of Mr. Robinson, 17 Tory Street, Wellington

1555

19 February 1916

Rev. W. Shirer

No	149
Date of Notice	19 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Thomas Russell	Doris Josephine Edlund
	💍 1916/4249
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	life	life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Robinson, 17 Tory Street, Wellington
Folio	1555
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

150

19 February 1916

Llewellyn Eldridge Lewis
Agnes Lindsay

Llewellyn Eldridge Lewis
Agnes Lindsay
💍 1916/4250

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

26
25

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
20 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

1556

19 February 1916

Rev. H. Watson

No	150
Date of Notice	19 February 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Llewellyn Eldridge Lewis	Agnes Lindsay
	💍 1916/4250
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	26	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	1556
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).