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 1622

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar R. A. Poulton

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

842

24 October 1917

Leslie Victor Smith
Fanny Monks

Leslie Victor Smith
Fanny Monk
💍 1917/5608

Bachelor
Spinster

Electrical Engineer

28
24

Petone
Petone

19 years
24 years

Methodist Church, Molesworth Street, Wellington

5241

24 October 1917

Rev. A. Reader

No	842
Date of Notice	24 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Victor Smith	Fanny Monks
BDM Match (95%)	Leslie Victor Smith	Fanny Monk
	💍 1917/5608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Electrical Engineer
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	19 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Molesworth Street, Wellington
Folio	5241
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Reader

843

24 October 1917

Austin Morris Bisley
Elizabeth Maggie Shirer

Austin Morris Bisley
Elizabeth Maggie Shirer
💍 1917/5609

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant (Member of N.Z. E.F.)

25
24

Nelson
Wellington

Life
Life

St. James' Church, Wellington South

5242

24 October 1917

Rev. W. Shirer

No	843
Date of Notice	24 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Austin Morris Bisley	Elizabeth Maggie Shirer
	💍 1917/5609
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant (Member of N.Z. E.F.)
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Nelson	Wellington
Length of Residence	Life	Life
Marriage Place	St. James' Church, Wellington South
Folio	5242
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shirer

844

25 October 1917

Ernest Edwin Donald
Kathleen Bright

Ernest Edwin Donald
Kathleen Bright
💍 1917/5610

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Agent

38
28

Wellington
Wellington

14 days
10 days

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

5243

25 October 1917

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	844
Date of Notice	25 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edwin Donald	Kathleen Bright
	💍 1917/5610
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Agent
Age	38	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	14 days	10 days
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	5243
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

845

25 October 1917

Leonard Taylor
Ivy Sheddan Betty Kenney

Leonard Taylor
Ivy Spedding Kenney
💍 1917/5612

Bachelor
Spinster

Traveller

26
24

Wadestown
Wellington

26 years
24 years

St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington

5244

25 October 1917

Rev. H. Watson

No	845
Date of Notice	25 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Taylor	Ivy Sheddan Betty Kenney
BDM Match (83%)	Leonard Taylor	Ivy Spedding Kenney
	💍 1917/5612
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Traveller
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Wadestown	Wellington
Length of Residence	26 years	24 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Willis Street, Wellington
Folio	5244
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

846

25 October 1917

Walter Henry Wagstaff
Dorothy Evelyn Hook

Walter Henry Wagstaff
Dorothy Evelyn Hook
💍 1917/5613

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder & Contractor

29
22

Kilbirnie
Wellington

16 years
Life

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

5245

25 October 1917

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	846
Date of Notice	25 October 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Henry Wagstaff	Dorothy Evelyn Hook
	💍 1917/5613
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder & Contractor
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Wellington
Length of Residence	16 years	Life
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	5245
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 October 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

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).