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 487

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

11 January 1911

Henry Thomas Fox
Leslie Grace Borrows

Bachelor
Spinster

Hairdresser & Tobacconist

24
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
11 years

Residence of Mrs. Borrows, 144 Ingestre Street, Wellington

11/3893

11 January 1911

Rev. J. Paterson

No	36
Date of Notice	11 January 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Thomas Fox	Leslie Grace Borrows
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hairdresser & Tobacconist
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Borrows, 144 Ingestre Street, Wellington
Folio	11/3893
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 January 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Paterson

12 January 1911

John Henry Gray
Annie Mekelsen

John Henry Gray
Annie McKelsen
💍 1911/1223

Bachelor
Spinster

Driver

26
26

Wellington
Wellington

7 years
4 years

Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

11/766

12 January 1911

Rev. S. J. Serpell

No	37
Date of Notice	12 January 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Gray	Annie Mekelsen
BDM Match (93%)	John Henry Gray	Annie McKelsen
	💍 1911/1223
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Driver
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	11/766
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. J. Serpell

12 January 1911

Fred Lewis Stapleton
Hanorah Elizabeth Mahony

Fred Lewis Stapleton
Hanorah Elizabeth Mahony
💍 1911/1126

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
30

Wellington
Wellington

7 months
15 months

Registrar's Office, Wellington

11/577

12 January 1911

Registrar

No	38
Date of Notice	12 January 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Fred Lewis Stapleton	Hanorah Elizabeth Mahony
	💍 1911/1126
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	7 months	15 months
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	11/577
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 January 1911
Officiating Minister	Registrar

13 January 1911

Horace Henry Gillott
Edith Esther Gradwell

Horace Henry Gillott
Edith Esther Gradwell
💍 1911/1391

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

29
26

Wellington
Wellington

5 days
12 days

St. Peter's Church, Wellington

11/658

13 January 1911

Rev. C. C. Harper

No	39
Date of Notice	13 January 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Horace Henry Gillott	Edith Esther Gradwell
	💍 1911/1391
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 days	12 days
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church, Wellington
Folio	11/658
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. C. Harper

14 January 1911

James Strachan
Elizabeth Summerfield Harrison

James Strachan
Elizabeth Summerfield Harrison
💍 1911/1297

Bachelor
Spinster

Gardener & Asylum attendant

38
26

Porirua
Wellington

5 years
2 years

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church manse, Pirie Street, Wellington

11/730

14 January 1911

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	40
Date of Notice	14 January 1911
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Strachan	Elizabeth Summerfield Harrison
	💍 1911/1297
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Gardener & Asylum attendant
Age	38	26
Dwelling Place	Porirua	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church manse, Pirie Street, Wellington
Folio	11/730
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1911
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. 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).