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 1559

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1917 Registrar R. G. 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

531

03 July 1917

Harold Blackburne
Beatrice Greenwood

Harold Blackburne
Beatrice Greenwood
💍 1917/4334

Bachelor
Spinster

Lieutenant N.Z.E.F.

32
25

Wellington
Wellington

1 week
1 week

St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington

3651

03 July 1917

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	531
Date of Notice	03 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Harold Blackburne	Beatrice Greenwood
	💍 1917/4334
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Lieutenant N.Z.E.F.
Age	32	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	St Paul's Pro-Cathedral Wellington
Folio	3651
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

532

03 July 1917

Joseph Samuel Henry Saunders
Gwendoline James

Joseph Samuel Henry Saunders
Gwendoline James
💍 1917/4345

Bachelor
Spinster

Clothier

19
25

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
2 months

The Residence of Mrs Waters 52 Tory St. Wellington

3652

Eliza Margaret Saunders mother

03 July 1917

Rev. J. K. Elliott D.D.

No	532
Date of Notice	03 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Samuel Henry Saunders	Gwendoline James
	💍 1917/4345
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clothier
Age	19	25
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	2 months
Marriage Place	The Residence of Mrs Waters 52 Tory St. Wellington
Folio	3652
Consent	Eliza Margaret Saunders mother
Date of Certificate	03 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott D.D.

533

03 July 1917

Basil Cumming Thomson
Margaret Clapper

Basil Cumming Thomson
Margaret Capper
💍 1917/4352

Bachelor
Spinster

Salvation Army officer

31
23

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
4 weeks

Salvation Army Hall, Constable St. Wellington

3653

03 July 1917

Chaplain Captain A. Gray

No	533
Date of Notice	03 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Basil Cumming Thomson	Margaret Clapper
BDM Match (97%)	Basil Cumming Thomson	Margaret Capper
	💍 1917/4352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Salvation Army officer
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	4 weeks
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Hall, Constable St. Wellington
Folio	3653
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Chaplain Captain A. Gray

534

03 July 1917

Freeman Jesse Steel
Florence Ada Ewington

Freeman Jesse Steel
Florence Ada Ewington
💍 1917/4353

Bachelor
Spinster

Biograph Operator

26
23

Kilbirnie
Kilbirnie

3 days
10 days

All Saint's Church Kilbirnie

3654

03 July 1917

Rev. J. H. Sykes

No	534
Date of Notice	03 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Freeman Jesse Steel	Florence Ada Ewington
	💍 1917/4353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Biograph Operator
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Kilbirnie	Kilbirnie
Length of Residence	3 days	10 days
Marriage Place	All Saint's Church Kilbirnie
Folio	3654
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. H. Sykes

535

03 July 1917

Alexander Day
Myrtle Inch

Alexander Day
Myrtle Inch
💍 1917/4354

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Clerk

24
26

Featherston
Wellington

4 months
2 years

St Peter's Church Wellington

3655

03 July 1917

Rev. H. W. Watson

No	535
Date of Notice	03 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Day	Myrtle Inch
	💍 1917/4354
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Clerk
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Featherston	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	St Peter's Church Wellington
Folio	3655
Consent
Date of Certificate	03 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. W. Watson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).