Intentions to Marry, 1917 Mauriceville to Wellington

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840472, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1917 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.

1917d contains pages 1283-1664, covering districts from Mauriceville to Wellington

Page 1449

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar J. G. L. Stanhope

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

2 January 1917

Trevor Llewellyn Tapp
Jean Mary Anderson

Trevor Tlewelyn Tapp
Jean May Anderson
💍 1917/6642

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

26
24

Trentham
Silverstream

3 months
3 weeks

St. John's Church, Wellington

345

2 January 1917

Rev. J. Sale

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Trevor Llewellyn Tapp	Jean Mary Anderson
BDM Match (92%)	Trevor Tlewelyn Tapp	Jean May Anderson
	💍 1917/6642
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Silverstream
Length of Residence	3 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	345
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Sale

3 January 1917

Robert Campbell Niven
Emma Stevens

Robert Campbell Niven
Emma Stevens
💍 1917/6644

Bachelor
Divorced Decree Absolute 23 March 1909

Gentleman

57
53

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
Life

Residence of Mrs Martin, 19 Kent Terrace, Wellington

346

3 January 1917

Rev. R. Wood

No	2
Date of Notice	3 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Campbell Niven	Emma Stevens
	💍 1917/6644
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced Decree Absolute 23 March 1909
Profession	Gentleman
Age	57	53
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	Life
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Martin, 19 Kent Terrace, Wellington
Folio	346
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. Wood

3 January 1917

Herbert Walter Bowkett
Edith Mary Braigie

Herbert Walter Bowkett
Edith Mary Craigie
💍 1917/6645

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

30
30

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
3 days

Registrar's Office, Wellington

347

3 January 1917

The Registrar

No	3
Date of Notice	3 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Walter Bowkett	Edith Mary Braigie
BDM Match (97%)	Herbert Walter Bowkett	Edith Mary Craigie
	💍 1917/6645
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	347
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1917
Officiating Minister	The Registrar

3 January 1917

Arthur Alton Burd
Kathleen May Nealon

Arthur Alton Burd
Kathleen May Nealon
💍 1917/6646

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Clerk

20
21

Petone
Petone

2 weeks
2 years

Residence of Mr. W. C. Burd, 37 Cuba St., Petone

348

Walter Clement Burd, father

3 January 1917

Rev. A. Reader

No	4
Date of Notice	3 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Alton Burd	Kathleen May Nealon
	💍 1917/6646
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Clerk
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. C. Burd, 37 Cuba St., Petone
Folio	348
Consent	Walter Clement Burd, father
Date of Certificate	3 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Reader

3 January 1917

Henry Joseph Diamond Doherty
Johanna Mary Josephine Vaney

Henry Joseph Diamond Doherty
Johannah Mary Josephine Vaney
💍 1917/2315

Bachelor
Spinster

Seaman

23
22

Wellington
Wellington

9 years
Life

St. Anne's Church, Wellington

1480

3 January 1917

Rev. M. Devoy

No	5
Date of Notice	3 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Joseph Diamond Doherty	Johanna Mary Josephine Vaney
BDM Match (98%)	Henry Joseph Diamond Doherty	Johannah Mary Josephine Vaney
	💍 1917/2315
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seaman
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Wellington
Folio	1480
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Devoy

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).