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 1492

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar J. H. Fairthorpe

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

216

19 March 1917

John Raine
Harriet Eva Cox

John Raine
Harriett Eva Cox
💍 1917/2367

Bachelor
Spinster

Merchant

27
22

Karori
Wellington

21 years
4 years

Baptist Church, Vivian St, Wellington

1530

19 March 1917

Rev. J. K. Archer

No	216
Date of Notice	19 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Raine	Harriet Eva Cox
BDM Match (97%)	John Raine	Harriett Eva Cox
	💍 1917/2367
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Merchant
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Karori	Wellington
Length of Residence	21 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Baptist Church, Vivian St, Wellington
Folio	1530
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Archer

217

19 March 1917

Archibald Bazil Cox
Myrtle Isobel Carter

Archibald Bazil Cox
Myrtle Isobel Carter
💍 1917/1357

Bachelor
Spinster

Sailor

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
14 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

538

19 March 1917

Rev. H. Watson

No	217
Date of Notice	19 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Bazil Cox	Myrtle Isobel Carter
	💍 1917/1357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sailor
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	14 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	538
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Watson

218

20 March 1917

James Arthur Jenks
Florence Margaret Beck

James Arthur Jenks
Florence Margaret Beck
💍 1917/2468

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

29
28

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
17 years

St. Thomas' Church, Wellington

1633

20 March 1917

Rev. W. Fancourt

No	218
Date of Notice	20 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Arthur Jenks	Florence Margaret Beck
	💍 1917/2468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	29	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	17 years
Marriage Place	St. Thomas' Church, Wellington
Folio	1633
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Fancourt

219

20 March 1917

Walter Charles Brook
Gladys Caroline Irene Burton

Walter Charles Brook
Gladys Caroline Irene Burton
💍 1917/2368

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser

19
17

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
11 years

Methodist Parsonage, 38 Macfarlane St, Wellington

1531

No person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent. John Burton father

5 April 1917

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	219
Date of Notice	20 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Charles Brook	Gladys Caroline Irene Burton
	💍 1917/2368
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser
Age	19	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Parsonage, 38 Macfarlane St, Wellington
Folio	1531
Consent	No person in N.Z. authorized by law to give consent. John Burton father
Date of Certificate	5 April 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

220

20 March 1917

Douglas Forrester Blaikie
Gertrude Carrie Webster

Douglas Forrester Clarke
Gertrude Carrie Webster
💍 1917/1358

Bachelor
Spinster

Station Manager

32
24

Wellington
Wellington

1 month
8 years

Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington

539

20 March 1917

Rev. A. E. Hunt

No	220
Date of Notice	20 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Douglas Forrester Blaikie	Gertrude Carrie Webster
BDM Match (94%)	Douglas Forrester Clarke	Gertrude Carrie Webster
	💍 1917/1358
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Station Manager
Age	32	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 month	8 years
Marriage Place	Methodist Church, Webb Street, Wellington
Folio	539
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. Hunt

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).