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 1488

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

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

196

14 March 1917

John Raymond Johnson
Edith Etta Lowe

John Raymond Johnson
Edith Etta Lowe
💍 1917/2339

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

21
20

Silverstream
Silverstream

1 year
1 year

Church of England, Wallaceville, Trentham

1525

George William Lowe, father

14 March 1917

Rev. A. D. Stratford

No	196
Date of Notice	14 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Raymond Johnson	Edith Etta Lowe
	💍 1917/2339
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Silverstream	Silverstream
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	Church of England, Wallaceville, Trentham
Folio	1525
Consent	George William Lowe, father
Date of Certificate	14 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. D. Stratford

197

13 March 1917

Charles Warren Hanning
Mary Agnes Irwin Logan

Charles Warren Hanning
Mary Agnes Irwin Logan
💍 1917/1418

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

22
27

Wellington
Wellington

1 year
2 years

St. John's Church, Wellington

523

13 March 1917

Rev. J. Gibb

No	197
Date of Notice	13 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Warren Hanning	Mary Agnes Irwin Logan
	💍 1917/1418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	1 year	2 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church, Wellington
Folio	523
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

198

14 March 1917

Joseph Albert Barnes
Winifred Nielsen

Joseph Albert Barnes
Winifred Neilson
💍 1917/2347

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer's Labourer

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

3 years
4 months

Methodist manse, 11 Hankey St. Wellington

1526

14 March 1917

Rev. J. K. Smith

No	198
Date of Notice	14 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Albert Barnes	Winifred Nielsen
BDM Match (91%)	Joseph Albert Barnes	Winifred Neilson
	💍 1917/2347
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer's Labourer
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 years	4 months
Marriage Place	Methodist manse, 11 Hankey St. Wellington
Folio	1526
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Smith

199

14 March 1917

Charles Joseph Blarth
Ilma Victoria Edwards

Charles Joseph Clark
Ilma Victoria Edwards
💍 1917/1419

Bachelor
Spinster

Proprietor Bath house

32
28

Wellington
Wellington

17 years
3 months

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

524

14 March 1917

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	199
Date of Notice	14 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Joseph Blarth	Ilma Victoria Edwards
BDM Match (93%)	Charles Joseph Clark	Ilma Victoria Edwards
	💍 1917/1419
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Proprietor Bath house
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 years	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	524
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

200

14 March 1917

Leonard John Danahay
Jessie Margaret McCarthy

Leonard John Danahay
Jessie Margaret McCurdy
💍 1917/2358

Bachelor
Spinster

Groom

29
27

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

1 year
20 years

Roman Catholic Church, Upper Hutt

1527

14 March 1917

Rev. J. Guinane

No	200
Date of Notice	14 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard John Danahay	Jessie Margaret McCarthy
BDM Match (94%)	Leonard John Danahay	Jessie Margaret McCurdy
	💍 1917/2358
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Groom
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	1 year	20 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Upper Hutt
Folio	1527
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Guinane

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).