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 791

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 March 1912 Registrar Frederick Henry Dodd

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

12 February 1912

Edmond Stanley Gower
Ellen O'Leary

Edmund Stanley Gower
Ellen O'Leary
💍 1912/4279

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic

32
28

Westport
Westport

2 months
12 months

Roman Catholic Church

12/4120

12 February 1912

Rev. J. Walshe

No	6
Date of Notice	12 February 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmond Stanley Gower	Ellen O'Leary
BDM Match (98%)	Edmund Stanley Gower	Ellen O'Leary
	💍 1912/4279
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic
Age	32	28
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	2 months	12 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	12/4120
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walshe

12 February 1912

Thomas Sullivan Hale
Margaret O'Leary

Thomas O Sullivan Hale
Margaret O'Leary
💍 1912/4281

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver
Domestic

25
25

Westport
Westport

Since birth
4 years

Roman Catholic Church

12/4121

12 February 1912

Rev. J. Walshe

No	7
Date of Notice	12 February 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Sullivan Hale	Margaret O'Leary
BDM Match (95%)	Thomas O Sullivan Hale	Margaret O'Leary
	💍 1912/4281
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver	Domestic
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	Since birth	4 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	12/4121
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walshe

12 February 1912

John Jameson
Elizabeth Ellen Beswick

John Jamieson
Elizabeth Ellen Beswick
💍 1912/1840

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker
Domestic

28
21

Westport
Westport

2 years
Since birth

Private residence of Charles Beswick, 10 Queen Street, Westport

12/1503

12 February 1912

Rev. J. J. Burrows

No	8
Date of Notice	12 February 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Jameson	Elizabeth Ellen Beswick
BDM Match (96%)	John Jamieson	Elizabeth Ellen Beswick
	💍 1912/1840
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker	Domestic
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	2 years	Since birth
Marriage Place	Private residence of Charles Beswick, 10 Queen Street, Westport
Folio	12/1503
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Burrows

7 March 1912

John Campbell Francis
Kathleen Knowsley

John Campbell Francis
Kathleen Knowsley
💍 1912/4283

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Domestic duties

24
21

Westport
Westport

17 days
3 days

Private residence of E. Brynilason, Russell Street, Westport

12/4123

7 March 1912

Rev. J. J. McMenamin

No	9
Date of Notice	7 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Campbell Francis	Kathleen Knowsley
	💍 1912/4283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Domestic duties
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	17 days	3 days
Marriage Place	Private residence of E. Brynilason, Russell Street, Westport
Folio	12/4123
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 March 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. McMenamin

13 March 1912

Arthur Whittington Merrell
Beatrice O'Connell

Arthur Whittington Merrett
Beatrice O'Connell
💍 1912/4282

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic

23
23

Westport
Westport

2 years
Since birth

Private residence of Mrs. O'Connell, Mill Street, Westport

12/4122

13 March 1912

Rev. J. Walshe

No	10
Date of Notice	13 March 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Whittington Merrell	Beatrice O'Connell
BDM Match (96%)	Arthur Whittington Merrett	Beatrice O'Connell
	💍 1912/4282
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic
Age	23	23
Dwelling Place	Westport	Westport
Length of Residence	2 years	Since birth
Marriage Place	Private residence of Mrs. O'Connell, Mill Street, Westport
Folio	12/4122
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 March 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Walshe

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).