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 1454

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

12 January 1917

John Henderson Thomson
Lilian Grace Mallett

John Henderson Thomson
Lilian Grace Mallett
💍 1917/1239

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
27

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
3 days

Presbyterian manse Kilbirnie

368

12 January 1917

Rev. H. Beggs

No	26
Date of Notice	12 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henderson Thomson	Lilian Grace Mallett
	💍 1917/1239
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Presbyterian manse Kilbirnie
Folio	368
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Beggs

12 January 1917

William Francis Doyle
Jessie Boak

William Francis Doyle
Jessie Cook
💍 1917/1241

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
34

Lower Hutt
Lower Hutt

14 days
8 days

Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt

369

12 January 1917

Rev. J. J. Lane

No	27
Date of Notice	12 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Francis Doyle	Jessie Boak
BDM Match (91%)	William Francis Doyle	Jessie Cook
	💍 1917/1241
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	34
Dwelling Place	Lower Hutt	Lower Hutt
Length of Residence	14 days	8 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Lower Hutt
Folio	369
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Lane

12 January 1917

Arthur John Brent
Marian Claudia Jones

Arthur John Drew
Marian Claudia Jones
💍 1917/1242

Bachelor
Spinster

Marine Engineer

25
19

Troopship Ulimaroa
Wellington

9 months
12 years

Wesley Church Taranaki St. Wellington

370

Marian Grenfell Jones, mother

12 January 1917

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	28
Date of Notice	12 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur John Brent	Marian Claudia Jones
BDM Match (91%)	Arthur John Drew	Marian Claudia Jones
	💍 1917/1242
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Marine Engineer
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Troopship Ulimaroa	Wellington
Length of Residence	9 months	12 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church Taranaki St. Wellington
Folio	370
Consent	Marian Grenfell Jones, mother
Date of Certificate	12 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

13 January 1917

Herbert John Sears
Ruth Bannister

Herbert John Sears
Ruth Bannister
💍 1917/915

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier

30
25

Trentham
Khandallah

4 months
7 days

Residence of Mr. W. Nees, Khandallah

371

13 January 1917

Rev. J. Cumming

No	29
Date of Notice	13 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert John Sears	Ruth Bannister
	💍 1917/915
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Khandallah
Length of Residence	4 months	7 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Nees, Khandallah
Folio	371
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Cumming

13 January 1917

Alexander Goyder Hill
Agnes Russell Hoggan Nisbet

Alexander Goyder Hill
Agnes Russell Hoggan-Nisbet
💍 1917/916

Bachelor
Widow

Commercial Traveller

33
33

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
2 weeks

Baptist Church Vivian St, Wellington

372

13 January 1917

Rev. H. L. Elliott

No	30
Date of Notice	13 January 1917
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Goyder Hill	Agnes Russell Hoggan Nisbet
BDM Match (98%)	Alexander Goyder Hill	Agnes Russell Hoggan-Nisbet
	💍 1917/916
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	33	33
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	2 weeks
Marriage Place	Baptist Church Vivian St, Wellington
Folio	372
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1917
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. L. Elliott

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).