Intentions to Marry, 1912 Hawkes Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840449, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1912 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki, Gisborne (1912a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1912b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1912c).

Page 504

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1912 Registrar Gilbert Graham Hodghins

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

23 January 1912

Grace Martin
Ethel Mary Guthrie

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Porter

30
23

Petone
Petone

3 days
7 yrs

Church of The Sacred Heart, Petone

12/648

23 January 1912

Rev. F. G. Maples

No	61
Date of Notice	23 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Grace Martin	Ethel Mary Guthrie
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Porter
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Petone	Petone
Length of Residence	3 days	7 yrs
Marriage Place	Church of The Sacred Heart, Petone
Folio	12/648
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Maples

23 January 1912

Charles Le Masurier Turnbull
Myrtle Victoria Dement

Charles Le Masurier Turnbull
Myrtle Victoria Dement
💍 1912/1061

Bachelor
Spinster

Ironmonger Assistant

27
24

Wellington
Wellington

4½ yrs
Life

Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington

12/662

23 January 1912

Rev. J. K. Elliott

No	62
Date of Notice	23 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Le Masurier Turnbull	Myrtle Victoria Dement
	💍 1912/1061
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ironmonger Assistant
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4½ yrs	Life
Marriage Place	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington
Folio	12/662
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. K. Elliott

24 January 1912

Percival George Wood
Annie Miller

Percival George Wood
Annie Miller
💍 1912/150

Percival George Smith
Margaret Miller
💍 1912/6677

William Leslie Tyrie
Annie Miller
💍 1913/2213

Bachelor
Spinster

Shipwright

25
24

Wellington
Wellington

24 yrs
3 yrs

Registrar's Office, Wellington

12/114

24 January 1912

G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

No	63
Date of Notice	24 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Percival George Wood	Annie Miller
	💍 1912/150
BDM Match (65%)	Percival George Smith	Margaret Miller
	💍 1912/6677
BDM Match (63%)	William Leslie Tyrie	Annie Miller
	💍 1913/2213
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shipwright
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	24 yrs	3 yrs
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	12/114
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1912
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

24 January 1912

William Henry Thompson
Mary Frances Gibson

William Henry Thompson
Mary Frances Gibson
💍 1912/151

Widower 31/8/1911
Widow 30/5/1907

Moulder

38
37

Wellington
Wellington

4 mos
12 mos

Registrar's Office, Wellington

12/115

24 January 1912

G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

No	64
Date of Notice	24 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Thompson	Mary Frances Gibson
	💍 1912/151
Condition	Widower 31/8/1911	Widow 30/5/1907
Profession	Moulder
Age	38	37
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 mos	12 mos
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	12/115
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1912
Officiating Minister	G. G. Hodgkins, Registrar

24 January 1912

Albert Victor Lamb
Frances Lilian Stairmand

Albert Victor Lamb
Francis Lilian Stairmaud
💍 1912/1113

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer

24
26

Wellington
Wellington

17 yrs
8 yrs

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

12/739

24 January 1912

Rev. J. E. Chapman

No	65
Date of Notice	24 January 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Victor Lamb	Frances Lilian Stairmand
BDM Match (96%)	Albert Victor Lamb	Francis Lilian Stairmaud
	💍 1912/1113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	17 yrs	8 yrs
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	12/739
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Chapman

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).