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 1649

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1917 Registrar R. S. 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

977

12 December 1917

d'Auvergne Stanley Leigh
Hilda Gordon Bowler

D'auvergne Stanley Leigh Gruit
Hilda Gordon Bowler
💍 1917/6488

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

24
23

Wellington
Gore

3 weeks
Life

Presbyterian Church, Gore

6376

12 December 1917

Rev. J. M. Simpson

No	977
Date of Notice	12 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	d'Auvergne Stanley Leigh	Hilda Gordon Bowler
BDM Match (87%)	D'auvergne Stanley Leigh Gruit	Hilda Gordon Bowler
	💍 1917/6488
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Gore
Length of Residence	3 weeks	Life
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Gore
Folio	6376
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. M. Simpson

978

12 December 1917

Colonel Frank Pratt
Jessie McFaul

Colonel Frank Pratt
Hessie McFaul
💍 1917/5742

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

36
24

Trentham
Wellington

8 months
7 months

Anglican Chapel, Trentham or the residence of Mr W. F. J. Woods, 23 Myall Crescent, Wellington

5374

12 December 1917

Canon T. F. Taylor

No	978
Date of Notice	12 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colonel Frank Pratt	Jessie McFaul
BDM Match (96%)	Colonel Frank Pratt	Hessie McFaul
	💍 1917/5742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	36	24
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 months	7 months
Marriage Place	Anglican Chapel, Trentham or the residence of Mr W. F. J. Woods, 23 Myall Crescent, Wellington
Folio	5374
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Canon T. F. Taylor

979

12 December 1917

Carl August Berendsen
Nellie Ellis Brown

Carl August Berendsen
Nellie Ellis Brown
💍 1917/5750

Bachelor
Spinster

Public Servant

27
23

Trentham
Wellington

5 months
5 years

St John's Church, Willis St., Wellington

5375

12 December 1917

Rev. J. Gibb

No	979
Date of Notice	12 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Carl August Berendsen	Nellie Ellis Brown
	💍 1917/5750
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Public Servant
Age	27	23
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 months	5 years
Marriage Place	St John's Church, Willis St., Wellington
Folio	5375
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

980

13 December 1917

Domingo Hobbs
Margaret Palmer

Domingo Hobbs
Margaret Palmer
💍 1917/5761

Widower 30/6/1917
Widow 29/12/1911

Farmer

75
57

Khandallah
Khandallah

60 years
5 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

5376

13 December 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	980
Date of Notice	13 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Domingo Hobbs	Margaret Palmer
	💍 1917/5761
Condition	Widower 30/6/1917	Widow 29/12/1911
Profession	Farmer
Age	75	57
Dwelling Place	Khandallah	Khandallah
Length of Residence	60 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	5376
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

981

13 December 1917

Sydney Hamlet Higgs
Winifred Patterson

Sydney Hamlet Higgs
Winifred Patterson
💍 1917/5764

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

33
25

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
9 years

St Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington

5377

13 December 1917

Rev. J. F. O'Connor

No	981
Date of Notice	13 December 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Sydney Hamlet Higgs	Winifred Patterson
	💍 1917/5764
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	33	25
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	9 years
Marriage Place	St Joseph's Church, Buckle St., Wellington
Folio	5377
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 December 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. O'Connor

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).