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 610

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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

572

15 July 1912

Basil James Stokes
Nellie Hatchard

Basil James Stokes
Nellie Hatchard
💍 1912/5007

Bachelor
Spinster

Letter Carrier

31
30

Wellington
Wellington

5 years
8 years

St. Mark's Church, Wellington

12/4832

15 July 1912

Rev. C. F. Askew

No	572
Date of Notice	15 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Basil James Stokes	Nellie Hatchard
	💍 1912/5007
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Letter Carrier
Age	31	30
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	5 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Mark's Church, Wellington
Folio	12/4832
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. F. Askew

573

15 July 1912

Phillip Alexander Mackay
Emily Margaret Chinn

Phillip Alexander MacKay
Emily Margaret Chinn
💍 1912/4763

Bachelor
Spinster

Artilleryman

30
29

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
10 years

Registrar's Office, Wellington

12/4662

15 July 1912

Registrar

No	573
Date of Notice	15 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Phillip Alexander Mackay	Emily Margaret Chinn
BDM Match (98%)	Phillip Alexander MacKay	Emily Margaret Chinn
	💍 1912/4763
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Artilleryman
Age	30	29
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	12/4662
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Registrar

574

16 July 1912

Osman Oliver Mackley
Anne Elizabeth Pickin

Osman Oliver Mackley
Anne Elizabeth Pickin
💍 1912/4818

Bachelor
Spinster

Meat Inspector

35
26

Johnsonville
Johnsonville

3 days
Life

Anglican Church, Johnsonville

12/4717

16 July 1912

Rev. F. H. Petrie

No	574
Date of Notice	16 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Osman Oliver Mackley	Anne Elizabeth Pickin
	💍 1912/4818
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Meat Inspector
Age	35	26
Dwelling Place	Johnsonville	Johnsonville
Length of Residence	3 days	Life
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Johnsonville
Folio	12/4717
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. H. Petrie

575

16 July 1912

Walter John Hampton Reynolds
Marion Abigail Price

Walter John Hampton Reynolds
Marion Abigail Price
💍 1912/4855

Bachelor
Spinster

Newspaper Reporter

26
23

Wellington
Wellington

2 1/2 years
1 1/2 years

St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington

12/4731

16 July 1912

Rev. A. M. Johnson

No	575
Date of Notice	16 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter John Hampton Reynolds	Marion Abigail Price
	💍 1912/4855
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Newspaper Reporter
Age	26	23
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral, Wellington
Folio	12/4731
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Johnson

576

16 July 1912

Theophilus Singleton Hunter
Cecelia Selina Barr

Theophilus Singleton Hunter
Cecilia Selina Carr
💍 1912/4901

Bachelor
Spinster

Police Constable

22
20

Wellington
Wellington

2 years
1 1/2 years

St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington

12/4799

Mary Barr, mother

16 July 1912

Rev. T. O'Shea

No	576
Date of Notice	16 July 1912
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Theophilus Singleton Hunter	Cecelia Selina Barr
BDM Match (95%)	Theophilus Singleton Hunter	Cecilia Selina Carr
	💍 1912/4901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Police Constable
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	2 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington
Folio	12/4799
Consent	Mary Barr, mother
Date of Certificate	16 July 1912
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. O'Shea

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).