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 1483

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

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

171

5 March 1917

Richard Hobbs Tanner
Kathleen Josephine Teresa Sullivan

Richard Hobbs Tanner
Kathleen Josephine Teresa Sullivan
💍 1917/1421

Bachelor
Spinster

Waiter

20
21

Wellington
Wellington

18 months
5 years

St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington

503

no person in N.Z. authorised by law to give consent

19 March 1917

Rev. A. Venning

No	171
Date of Notice	5 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Hobbs Tanner	Kathleen Josephine Teresa Sullivan
	💍 1917/1421
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Waiter
Age	20	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	18 months	5 years
Marriage Place	St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington
Folio	503
Consent	no person in N.Z. authorised by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Venning

172

5 March 1917

Louis Moody
Edith Mainwaring Kenny

Louis Moody
Edith Mainana Kenny
💍 1917/1422

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
26

Featherston
Johnsonville

2 months
3 years

St. John's Church, Johnsonville

504

5 March 1917

Rev. T. H. Petrie

No	172
Date of Notice	5 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Louis Moody	Edith Mainwaring Kenny
BDM Match (91%)	Louis Moody	Edith Mainana Kenny
	💍 1917/1422
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	26
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	2 months	3 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Johnsonville
Folio	504
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. H. Petrie

173

5 March 1917

Christy Smith
Mary Elizabeth Hargreaves

Christy Smith
Mary Elizabeth Hargreaves
💍 1917/1423

Bachelor
Widow 28/2/1914

Book

37
29

Upper Hutt
Wellington

3 months
2 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

505

5 March 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	173
Date of Notice	5 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Christy Smith	Mary Elizabeth Hargreaves
	💍 1917/1423
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 28/2/1914
Profession	Book
Age	37	29
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months	2 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	505
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

174

6 March 1917

Robert Eric Manson
Bertha Muriel Siddall

Robert Eric Manson
Bertha Muriel Siddall
💍 1917/1424

Bachelor
Spinster

Jockey
Theatrical

20
23

Wellington
Wellington

19 years
6 months

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

506

Robert McKay Manson Father

6 March 1917

Thos Gardiner

No	174
Date of Notice	6 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Eric Manson	Bertha Muriel Siddall
	💍 1917/1424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jockey	Theatrical
Age	20	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	19 years	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	506
Consent	Robert McKay Manson Father
Date of Certificate	6 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Thos Gardiner

175

5 March 1917

Herbert Charlton Woodbridge
Margaret Maxwell Kennedy

Herbert Charlton Woodbridge
Margaret Maxwell Kennedy
💍 1917/1425

Divorced Decree absolute 3/3/1917
Spinster

Wharf Labourer

36
32

Wellington
Wellington

14 years
3 years

At the house of the bridegroom 49 (a) Maida Vale Road Roseneath

507

5 March 1917

Rev. J. K. Elliott D.D.

No	175
Date of Notice	5 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Charlton Woodbridge	Margaret Maxwell Kennedy
	💍 1917/1425
Condition	Divorced Decree absolute 3/3/1917	Spinster
Profession	Wharf Labourer
Age	36	32
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 years	3 years
Marriage Place	At the house of the bridegroom 49 (a) Maida Vale Road Roseneath
Folio	507
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott D.D.

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).