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 631

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1912 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

677

26 August 1912

Ernest Edward Hunter
Louisa Marple

Ernest Edward Hunter
Louisa Marple
💍 1912/4813

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

29
16

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
3 weeks

Residence of J.J. North, 32 Ellice Street, Wellington

12/477

Eva Gough Marple (Mother)

26 August 1912

Rev. J.J. North

No	677
Date of Notice	26 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Edward Hunter	Louisa Marple
	💍 1912/4813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	29	16
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of J.J. North, 32 Ellice Street, Wellington
Folio	12/477
Consent	Eva Gough Marple (Mother)
Date of Certificate	26 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.J. North

678

26 August 1912

Gordon Leland Aickin
Margaret May Tod

Gordon Leland Aickin
Margaret May Tod
💍 1912/4924

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

28
20

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
10 years

St. Alban's Church, Eastbourne

12/481

Jessie Tod (Mother)

26 August 1912

Rev. G.J. Sola

No	678
Date of Notice	26 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gordon Leland Aickin	Margaret May Tod
	💍 1912/4924
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Alban's Church, Eastbourne
Folio	12/481
Consent	Jessie Tod (Mother)
Date of Certificate	26 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. G.J. Sola

679

27 August 1912

Alfred William Thomas Hunt
Gladys Bennett

Alfred William Thomas Hunt
Glaydis Bennett
💍 1912/7668

Bachelor
Spinster

Postal Official

27
24

Wellington
Timaru

4 years
6 months

Residence of Mr. M. McBeath, 207 North St., Timaru

12/693

27 August 1912

Rev. A.E. Hunt

No	679
Date of Notice	27 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred William Thomas Hunt	Gladys Bennett
BDM Match (93%)	Alfred William Thomas Hunt	Glaydis Bennett
	💍 1912/7668
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Postal Official
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Timaru
Length of Residence	4 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. M. McBeath, 207 North St., Timaru
Folio	12/693
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.E. Hunt

680

27 August 1912

Charles Whiteman
Irene Adeline Winifred Judd

Charles Whiteman
Irene Adeline Winifred Judd
💍 1912/4827

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman

23
20

Wellington
Hutt

2 years
12 years

St. James Church, Hutt

12/472

Louisa Judd (Father)

27 August 1912

Rev. J. Jones

No	680
Date of Notice	27 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Whiteman	Irene Adeline Winifred Judd
	💍 1912/4827
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Hutt
Length of Residence	2 years	12 years
Marriage Place	St. James Church, Hutt
Folio	12/472
Consent	Louisa Judd (Father)
Date of Certificate	27 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Jones

681

27 August 1912

Denis O'Mara
Catherine Donovan

Denis OMara
Catherine Donovan
💍 1912/4919

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

47
39

Wellington
Wellington

27 years
7 months

St. Anne's Church, Wellington

12/481

27 August 1912

Rev. T. Devoy

No	681
Date of Notice	27 August 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Denis O'Mara	Catherine Donovan
BDM Match (96%)	Denis OMara	Catherine Donovan
	💍 1912/4919
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	47	39
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	27 years	7 months
Marriage Place	St. Anne's Church, Wellington
Folio	12/481
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 August 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. Devoy

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).