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 1576

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1916 Registrar J. Palethorpe

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

19 January 1916

John McBlew
Jane Beatrice Browne

John McClew
Jean Beatrice Browne
💍 1916/4222

Bachelor
Widow 29 April 1912

Tram Conductor

27
37

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
5 years

Residence of Mr. Mills 34 Mortimer Terrace Wellington

1503

19 January 1916

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	56
Date of Notice	19 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McBlew	Jane Beatrice Browne
BDM Match (90%)	John McClew	Jean Beatrice Browne
	💍 1916/4222
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 29 April 1912
Profession	Tram Conductor
Age	27	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	5 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Mills 34 Mortimer Terrace Wellington
Folio	1503
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

20 January 1916

James Isaac Needham
Irene Campbell Burns

James Isaac Needham
Irene Campbell Burns
💍 1916/4223

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

29
23

Rangiotu
Petone

4 months
1 month

Church of England Petone

1504

20 January 1916

Rev. G. B. Stephenson

No	57
Date of Notice	20 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Isaac Needham	Irene Campbell Burns
	💍 1916/4223
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	29	23
Dwelling Place	Rangiotu	Petone
Length of Residence	4 months	1 month
Marriage Place	Church of England Petone
Folio	1504
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. B. Stephenson

21 January 1916

Richard Arthur Pitt
Ellen Ward

Richard Arthur Pitt
Ellen Ward
💍 1916/336

Bachelor
Spinster

Twine Polisher

31
32

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
1 day

Registrar's Office Wellington

800

21 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	58
Date of Notice	21 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Arthur Pitt	Ellen Ward
	💍 1916/336
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Twine Polisher
Age	31	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	800
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

21 January 1916

James Paterson Little
Margaret Ellis Tait

James Paterson Little
Margaret Ellis Tait
💍 1916/4224

Bachelor
Spinster

Station manager

49
24

Wellington
Wellington

7 days
1 day

Residence of Mr G. A. Troup Raroa Road, Kelburn

1505

21 January 1916

Rev. A. C. W. Standage

No	59
Date of Notice	21 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Paterson Little	Margaret Ellis Tait
	💍 1916/4224
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station manager
Age	49	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 days	1 day
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr G. A. Troup Raroa Road, Kelburn
Folio	1505
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. W. Standage

21 January 1916

Christian Henry Jensen
Annie McKinnon Clements

Christian Henry Jensen
Annie McKinnon Clements
💍 1916/337

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

28
21

Wellington
Wellington

10 years
2 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

801

21 January 1916

Deputy Registrar

No	60
Date of Notice	21 January 1916
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christian Henry Jensen	Annie McKinnon Clements
	💍 1916/337
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	801
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1916
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).