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 1482

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1917 Registrar E. H. Prebblethorpe

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

166

3 March 1917

Ernest William Patterson
Ruby Hilda Aston

Ernest William Patterson
Ruby Hilda Aston
💍 1917/1393

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

31
22

Trentham
Wellington

4 months
2 weeks

Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington

498

3 March 1917

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	166
Date of Notice	3 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest William Patterson	Ruby Hilda Aston
	💍 1917/1393
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki Street Wellington
Folio	498
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

167

3 March 1917

Frederick Charles Preece
Nellie Lavinia Haselden

Frederick Charles Pracy
Nellie Lavinia Haiselden
💍 1917/1394

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

35
29

Trentham
Lower Hutt

2 weeks
7 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

499

3 March 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	167
Date of Notice	3 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Charles Preece	Nellie Lavinia Haselden
BDM Match (92%)	Frederick Charles Pracy	Nellie Lavinia Haiselden
	💍 1917/1394
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	35	29
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	2 weeks	7 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	499
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

168

3 March 1917

Edward Isaac Lock
Ruby Doris Hook

Edward Isaac Lock
Ruby Dorcas Hook
💍 1917/1395

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier MP Stoker

36
33

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
10 years

Registrar's Office Wellington

500

3 March 1917

Deputy Registrar

No	168
Date of Notice	3 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Isaac Lock	Ruby Doris Hook
BDM Match (94%)	Edward Isaac Lock	Ruby Dorcas Hook
	💍 1917/1395
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier MP Stoker
Age	36	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office Wellington
Folio	500
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Deputy Registrar

169

3 March 1917

Archibald Foley
Marcella Ruby France

Archibald Foley
Marsella Ruby France
💍 1917/1403

Bachelor
Spinster

Fellmonger

25
28

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

7 months
9 years

Sacred Heart Basilica Hill Street Wellington

501

3 March 1917

Rev. F. J. Dignan

No	169
Date of Notice	3 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Archibald Foley	Marcella Ruby France
BDM Match (98%)	Archibald Foley	Marsella Ruby France
	💍 1917/1403
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fellmonger
Age	25	28
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	7 months	9 years
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica Hill Street Wellington
Folio	501
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. J. Dignan

170

5 March 1917

William Robert Roach
Nellie Gladys Beryl Callaghan

William Robert Roach
Nellie Gladys Beryl Callaghan
💍 1917/1414

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

27
21

Wellington
Wellington

4 months
9 days

Sacred Heart Basilica Hill St. Wellington

502

5 March 1917

Rev. P. Moloney

No	170
Date of Notice	5 March 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Robert Roach	Nellie Gladys Beryl Callaghan
	💍 1917/1414
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 months	9 days
Marriage Place	Sacred Heart Basilica Hill St. Wellington
Folio	502
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 March 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Moloney

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).