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 1577

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

621

28 July 1917

John Watson
Julia Stephenson

John Watson
Julia Stephenson
💍 1917/661

Bachelor
Widow (21/9/1916)

Painter

37
41

Wellington
Wellington

5 months
3 months

Registrar's Office Wellington

3734

28 July 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	621
Date of Notice	28 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Watson	Julia Stephenson
	💍 1917/661
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (21/9/1916)
Profession	Painter
Age	37	41
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3734
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

622

30 July 1917

Robert Anthony Delany
Amelia Mary Parsons

Robert Anthony Delany
Amelia Mary Parsons
💍 1917/638

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
22

Wellington
Petone

3 days
22 years

Roman Catholic Church Wellington Petone Rd

3735

30 July 1917

Rev. P. J. Nealy

No	622
Date of Notice	30 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Anthony Delany	Amelia Mary Parsons
	💍 1917/638
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Petone
Length of Residence	3 days	22 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Wellington Petone Rd
Folio	3735
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. J. Nealy

623

31 July 1917

Norman Raynor Laughton
Kate Kirkus

Norman Raynor Laughton
Kate Kirkus
💍 1917/639

Bachelor
Widow (about March 1915)

Soldier

35
34

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
25 years

Residence of Rev. E. Drake Daniel St Wellington

3736

31 July 1917

Rev. E. Drake

No	623
Date of Notice	31 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Raynor Laughton	Kate Kirkus
	💍 1917/639
Condition	Bachelor	Widow (about March 1915)
Profession	Soldier
Age	35	34
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Rev. E. Drake Daniel St Wellington
Folio	3736
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Drake

624

1 August 1917

Herbert Brown
Bedelia Barrington

Heber Brown
Bedelia Barrington
💍 1917/640

Bachelor
Married (not heard of husband alive for 20 years last past)

Sailmaker

51
56

Wellington
Wellington

26 years
56 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

3737

1 August 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	624
Date of Notice	1 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Brown	Bedelia Barrington
BDM Match (92%)	Heber Brown	Bedelia Barrington
	💍 1917/640
Condition	Bachelor	Married (not heard of husband alive for 20 years last past)
Profession	Sailmaker
Age	51	56
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	26 years	56 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	3737
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

625

1 August 1917

Edward Henry Bowyer commonly known as Watts
Elsie Irene Woolley

Edward Henry Watts
Elsie Irene Woolley
💍 1917/641

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

28
23

Ngaio
Berhampore Wellington

12 years
13 years

Berhampore Baptist Church Wellington

3738

1 August 1917

Rev. Eric Evans

No	625
Date of Notice	1 August 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Henry Bowyer commonly known as Watts	Elsie Irene Woolley
BDM Match (71%)	Edward Henry Watts	Elsie Irene Woolley
	💍 1917/641
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Ngaio	Berhampore Wellington
Length of Residence	12 years	13 years
Marriage Place	Berhampore Baptist Church Wellington
Folio	3738
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Eric Evans

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).