Intentions to Marry, 1911 Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840446, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1911 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, (1911a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1911b), and Canterbury, Otago, Chatham Islands (1911c).

Page 503

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1911 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodgkins

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

116

9 February 1911

Ernest Douglas Jennens
Minnie Clara Spier

Ernest Douglas
Minnie Clara Jennens
💍 1911/328

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

22 years
21 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Manse, Pirie Street

11/717

9 February 1911

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	116
Date of Notice	9 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Douglas Jennens	Minnie Clara Spier
BDM Match (67%)	Ernest Douglas	Minnie Clara Jennens
	💍 1911/328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	22 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Manse, Pirie Street
Folio	11/717
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

117

9 February 1911

Arthur Braden Innes
Madeline Hooper Oldham

Arthur Braden Innes
Madeline Hooper Oldham
💍 1911/1320

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookseller

22
21

Wellington
Wellington

20 years
20 years

St. John's Church

11/739

9 February 1911

Rev. J. Gibb

No	117
Date of Notice	9 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Braden Innes	Madeline Hooper Oldham
	💍 1911/1320
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookseller
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	20 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. John's Church
Folio	11/739
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibb

118

9 February 1911

John Lewry Lykes
Lily Kathleen Luxford

John Henry Sykes
Lily Kathleen Luxford
💍 1911/1328

Bachelor
Widow

Clerk in Holy Orders

47
29

Trentham
Eastbourne

7 years
3 months

St. Alban's Church

11/822

9 February 1911

Bishop F. Wallis

No	118
Date of Notice	9 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Lewry Lykes	Lily Kathleen Luxford
BDM Match (91%)	John Henry Sykes	Lily Kathleen Luxford
	💍 1911/1328
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Clerk in Holy Orders
Age	47	29
Dwelling Place	Trentham	Eastbourne
Length of Residence	7 years	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Alban's Church
Folio	11/822
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Bishop F. Wallis

119

9 February 1911

Peter Gjording
Lizzie Lennie Spier

Peter Gjording
Lizzie Lennie
💍 1911/2180

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

39
38

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
10 years

Residence of Mrs. W. C. Allan, Reuben Avenue, Brooklyn

11/1729

9 February 1911

Rev. B. C. Blamires

No	119
Date of Notice	9 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Gjording	Lizzie Lennie Spier
BDM Match (84%)	Peter Gjording	Lizzie Lennie
	💍 1911/2180
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	39	38
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. W. C. Allan, Reuben Avenue, Brooklyn
Folio	11/1729
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. C. Blamires

120

9 February 1911

William Holmes Wakelin
Williamina Smith Weir

William Holmes Wakelin
Williamina Smith Weir
💍 1911/1395

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

27
26

Wellington
Wellington

24 years
5 years

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

11/662

9 February 1911

Archdeacon B. C. Harper

No	120
Date of Notice	9 February 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Holmes Wakelin	Williamina Smith Weir
	💍 1911/1395
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	27	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	24 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	11/662
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1911
Officiating Minister	Archdeacon B. C. Harper

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).