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 1558

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

526

2 July 1917

Eric Bertie Forster
Mary Maude Jensen

Eric Bertie Forster
Mary Maude Jensen
💍 1917/136

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

22
20

Trentham
Petone

1 week
5 months

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.

3646

Jno Peter Jensen father

2 July 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	526
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Eric Bertie Forster	Mary Maude Jensen
	💍 1917/136
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Petone
Length of Residence	1 week	5 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.
Folio	3646
Consent	Jno Peter Jensen father
Date of Certificate	2 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

527

2 July 1917

Norman Nelson
Ellen Susanne Singleton Wilson

Norman Nelson
Ellen Susanne Singelton Wilson
💍 1917/137

Bachelor
Widow 1907

Labourer

42
50

WELLINGTON.
WELLINGTON.

15 years
6 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.

3647

2 July 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	527
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Nelson	Ellen Susanne Singleton Wilson
BDM Match (97%)	Norman Nelson	Ellen Susanne Singelton Wilson
	💍 1917/137
Condition	Bachelor	Widow 1907
Profession	Labourer
Age	42	50
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON.	WELLINGTON.
Length of Residence	15 years	6 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.
Folio	3647
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

528

2 July 1917

Leslie Ronald Johnston
Eileen Mary Apps

Leslie Ronald Johnston
Eileen Mary Apps
💍 1917/138

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

23
20

WELLINGTON.
WELLINGTON.

4 days
20 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.

3648

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

17 July 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	528
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leslie Ronald Johnston	Eileen Mary Apps
	💍 1917/138
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	WELLINGTON.	WELLINGTON.
Length of Residence	4 days	20 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.
Folio	3648
Consent	no person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent
Date of Certificate	17 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

529

2 July 1917

Hugh Lorimer Johnson
Mary Macdougall Carmichael

Hugh Lorimer Johnson
Mary Macdougall Carmichael
💍 1917/139

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

34
29

Featherston
WELLINGTON.

5 weeks
1 week

St John's Church Willis St. WELLINGTON.

3649

2 July 1917

Rev. Dr. J Gibb

No	529
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Lorimer Johnson	Mary Macdougall Carmichael
	💍 1917/139
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Featherston	WELLINGTON.
Length of Residence	5 weeks	1 week
Marriage Place	St John's Church Willis St. WELLINGTON.
Folio	3649
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr. J Gibb

530

2 July 1917

William Marcus Townshend
Evelyn Annie Outred

William Marcus Townshend
Evelyn Annie Outred
💍 1917/140

Divorced Decree Absolute 2/7/17
Divorced Decree Absolute 14/11/12

Clerk

46
41

Hataitai
Hataitai

21 years
8 years

Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.

3650

3 July 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	530
Date of Notice	2 July 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Marcus Townshend	Evelyn Annie Outred
	💍 1917/140
Condition	Divorced Decree Absolute 2/7/17	Divorced Decree Absolute 14/11/12
Profession	Clerk
Age	46	41
Dwelling Place	Hataitai	Hataitai
Length of Residence	21 years	8 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office WELLINGTON.
Folio	3650
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

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).