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 669

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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

859

26 October 1912

Alfred Edward Maunder
Edith George Dempster Bruce Maggie Chapman Duguid

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

34
35

Wellington
Wellington

6 years
2 weeks

St. James' Church

12/7301

26 October 1912

Rev. W. Shires

No	859
Date of Notice	26 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Maunder	Edith George Dempster Bruce Maggie Chapman Duguid
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	34	35
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	6 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	St. James' Church
Folio	12/7301
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Shires

860

29 October 1912

William Harold Blanche
Margaret Dorothy Gladys Godfrey

William Harold Blanche
Margaret Dorothy Gladys Godfrey
💍 1912/7009

Bachelor
Spinster

Railway Guard

24
17

Wellington
Wellington

3 days
1 month

St. Mark's Church

12/7297

Francis Robert Godfrey, father

29 October 1912

Rev. G. F. Askew

No	860
Date of Notice	29 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Harold Blanche	Margaret Dorothy Gladys Godfrey
	💍 1912/7009
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Railway Guard
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 days	1 month
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church
Folio	12/7297
Consent	Francis Robert Godfrey, father
Date of Certificate	29 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. F. Askew

861

29 October 1912

John Ryan
Josephine Mary Esther Monica Sedgwick

John Ryan
Josephine Mary Esther Monica Sedgwick
💍 1912/8392

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
26

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

3 days
10 years

St. Peter's & St. Paul's Church, Johnsonville, Wellington

12/7426

29 October 1912

Rev. J. Walsh

No	861
Date of Notice	29 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ryan	Josephine Mary Esther Monica Sedgwick
	💍 1912/8392
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	26
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's & St. Paul's Church, Johnsonville, Wellington
Folio	12/7426
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walsh

862

29 October 1912

John Matthews Shobart
Janet Bacon

John Matthews Stobart
Janet Bacon
💍 1912/8373

Bachelor
Spinster

Joiner

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

42 years
16 years

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

12/7358

John Bacon, father

29 October 1912

Rev. J. G. Chapman

No	862
Date of Notice	29 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Matthews Shobart	Janet Bacon
BDM Match (98%)	John Matthews Stobart	Janet Bacon
	💍 1912/8373
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Joiner
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	42 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	12/7358
Consent	John Bacon, father
Date of Certificate	29 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Chapman

863

29 October 1912

John Jamieson
Elizabeth Notherspoon

John Jamieson
Elizabeth Wotherspoon
💍 1912/8389

John Jamieson
Elizabeth Ellen Beswick
💍 1912/1840

Bachelor
Spinster

Pattern Maker

23
24

Kaiwarra
Wadestown

2 years
4 days

Residence of Mr. W. Millikin, Beauchamp Street, Wadestown

12/7422

29 October 1912

Rev. W. B. Harris

No	863
Date of Notice	29 October 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Jamieson	Elizabeth Notherspoon
BDM Match (98%)	John Jamieson	Elizabeth Wotherspoon
	💍 1912/8389
BDM Match (74%)	John Jamieson	Elizabeth Ellen Beswick
	💍 1912/1840
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Pattern Maker
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Kaiwarra	Wadestown
Length of Residence	2 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. W. Millikin, Beauchamp Street, Wadestown
Folio	12/7422
Consent
Date of Certificate	29 October 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. B. Harris

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).