Intentions to Marry, 1913 Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840452, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1913 is bound in three volumes - Auckland, Taranaki (1913a), Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, Nelson, Westland (1913b), and Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Chatham Islands (1913c).

Page 009

District of Dannevirke Quarter ending 31 March 1913 Registrar George Thorburn

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

2 January 1913

Francis Gillanders
Sarah Davidson

Francis Gillanders
Sarah Davidson
💍 1913/1350

Widower
Spinster

Seed Merchant

55
43

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

3 days
3 weeks

Residence of Mrs Duguid, Rawhiti St, Dannevirke

13/834

2 January 1913

Rev. A. Grant

No	1
Date of Notice	2 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Gillanders	Sarah Davidson
	💍 1913/1350
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Seed Merchant
Age	55	43
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs Duguid, Rawhiti St, Dannevirke
Folio	13/834
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 January 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Grant

20 January 1913

Lionel Henry Longney
Sarah Mary Queen Lane

Lionel Henry Longney
Sarah May Queen Lane
💍 1913/1906

Bachelor
Spinster

Post office Clerk

20
19

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

6 years
10 years

Registrars Office, Dannevirke

13/831

Nathaniel Longney, Father

20 January 1913

Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	20 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lionel Henry Longney	Sarah Mary Queen Lane
BDM Match (98%)	Lionel Henry Longney	Sarah May Queen Lane
	💍 1913/1906
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Post office Clerk
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	6 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrars Office, Dannevirke
Folio	13/831
Consent	Nathaniel Longney, Father
Date of Certificate	20 January 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

22 January 1913

Oliver Pocock
Dorothy Joan Lucas

Oliver Pocock
Dorothy Joan Lucas
💍 1913/1353

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

22
25

Makotuku, Dannevirke
Makotuku, Dannevirke

3 months
3 months

Anglican Church, Dannevirke

13/828

22 January 1913

Rev. J. A. Wernickle

No	3
Date of Notice	22 January 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Oliver Pocock	Dorothy Joan Lucas
	💍 1913/1353
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Makotuku, Dannevirke	Makotuku, Dannevirke
Length of Residence	3 months	3 months
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Dannevirke
Folio	13/828
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. A. Wernickle

12 February 1913

Frederick Duncan Mackay
Mary Wiseman

Frederick Duncan MacKay
Mary Wiseman
💍 1913/8799

Bachelor
Spinster

Linotype Operator

22
23

Dannevirke
Dannevirke

3 days
10 years

Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke

13/835

12 February 1913

Rev. A. Grant

No	4
Date of Notice	12 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Duncan Mackay	Mary Wiseman
BDM Match (98%)	Frederick Duncan MacKay	Mary Wiseman
	💍 1913/8799
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Linotype Operator
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Dannevirke	Dannevirke
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Dannevirke
Folio	13/835
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 February 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Grant

15 February 1913

August Donghi
Teresa Fontana

August Donghi
Teresa Fontana
💍 1913/396

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
20

Rua Roa
Rua Roa

7 months
3 days

Catholic Church, Dannevirke

13/839

Authority attached

15 February 1913

Rev. T. J. Cahill

No	5
Date of Notice	15 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	August Donghi	Teresa Fontana
	💍 1913/396
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Rua Roa	Rua Roa
Length of Residence	7 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Dannevirke
Folio	13/839
Consent	Authority attached
Date of Certificate	15 February 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. T. J. Cahill

18 February 1913

Herbert Vernon Brown
Esther Breed

Herbert Vernon Brown
Esther Breed
💍 1913/1357

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
24

Matamau
Matamau

9 months
3 days

Residence of Walter Stanley Brown, High St, North Dannevirke

13/832

18 February 1913

Rev. Henry Curran

No	6
Date of Notice	18 February 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Vernon Brown	Esther Breed
	💍 1913/1357
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Matamau	Matamau
Length of Residence	9 months	3 days
Marriage Place	Residence of Walter Stanley Brown, High St, North Dannevirke
Folio	13/832
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. Henry Curran

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).