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 1475

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar J. H. Rue 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

131

21 February 1917

Rafaelo Alfano
Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie

Rafuelo Alfano
Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
💍 1917/1335

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
21

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
5 years

St. James' Manse, Adelaide Rd., Wellington

466

21 February 1917

Rev. W. Shirer

No	131
Date of Notice	21 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rafaelo Alfano	Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
BDM Match (96%)	Rafuelo Alfano	Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
	💍 1917/1335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. James' Manse, Adelaide Rd., Wellington
Folio	466
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

132

21 February 1917

Frank Glover
Alice Williams

Frank Glover
Alice Williams
💍 1917/1333

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

42
33

Island Bay, Wellington
Wellington

10 years
20 years

Residence of John Williams, 10 Waterloo Avenue, Wellington

464

21 February 1917

Rev. E. Drake

No	132
Date of Notice	21 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Glover	Alice Williams
	💍 1917/1333
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	42	33
Dwelling Place	Island Bay, Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	10 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of John Williams, 10 Waterloo Avenue, Wellington
Folio	464
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Drake

133

22 February 1917

Roland Saunderson Talbot
Dorothy Gwendolen Ramsbotham Isherwood

Roland Saunderson Talbot
Dorothy Gwendolen Ramsbotham Isherwood
💍 1917/1334

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

29
22

Featherston
Wellington

9 months
22 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

465

22 February 1917

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	133
Date of Notice	22 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roland Saunderson Talbot	Dorothy Gwendolen Ramsbotham Isherwood
	💍 1917/1334
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	465
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

134

22 February 1917

Rafaelo Alfano
Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie

Rafuelo Alfano
Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
💍 1917/1335

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

23
20

70 Kent Terrace, Wellington
15 Jacob Place, Wellington

6 years
5 years

The Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington

466

Mary Sharkie, mother

22 February 1917

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	134
Date of Notice	22 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Rafaelo Alfano	Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
BDM Match (96%)	Rafuelo Alfano	Elizabeth Agnes Ina Sharkie
	💍 1917/1335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	70 Kent Terrace, Wellington	15 Jacob Place, Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	5 years
Marriage Place	The Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	466
Consent	Mary Sharkie, mother
Date of Certificate	22 February 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

135

22 February 1917

Owen Barrie Durham
Beryl Bracroft Wilson

Owen Corrie Durham
Beryl Cracroft Wilson
💍 1917/1336

Bachelor
Divorced decree absolute, 22/2/1917

Freezing Hand

30
27

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
3 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

467

22 February 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	135
Date of Notice	22 February 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Owen Barrie Durham	Beryl Bracroft Wilson
BDM Match (92%)	Owen Corrie Durham	Beryl Cracroft Wilson
	💍 1917/1336
Condition	Bachelor	Divorced decree absolute, 22/2/1917
Profession	Freezing Hand
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	467
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 February 1917
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).