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 559

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1913 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

366

9 May 1913

Norman Roland Butler
Lillie Emily Burrell

Norman Roland Butler
Millie Emily Burrell
💍 1913/3696

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

25
22

Upper Hutt
Upper Hutt

25 years
22 years

St. David's Church

13/3319

9 May 1913

Rev. J. McLean

No	366
Date of Notice	9 May 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman Roland Butler	Lillie Emily Burrell
BDM Match (98%)	Norman Roland Butler	Millie Emily Burrell
	💍 1913/3696
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Upper Hutt	Upper Hutt
Length of Residence	25 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. David's Church
Folio	13/3319
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 May 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. McLean

367

9 May 1913

Launcelot Thornton Boyes
Ada Jessie Gwendoline des Landes

Launcelot Thornton Boyes
Ada Jessie Gwendoline des Landes
💍 1913/3403

Bachelor
Spinster

Telegraphist

25
20

Wellington
Wellington

4 years
19 years

St. Peter's Church

13/3203

Elias Mitchell des Landes, father

9 May 1913

Arch. B. B. Harper

No	367
Date of Notice	9 May 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Launcelot Thornton Boyes	Ada Jessie Gwendoline des Landes
	💍 1913/3403
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Telegraphist
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 years	19 years
Marriage Place	St. Peter's Church
Folio	13/3203
Consent	Elias Mitchell des Landes, father
Date of Certificate	9 May 1913
Officiating Minister	Arch. B. B. Harper

368

10 May 1913

Thomas Wood
Mary Overend

Thomas Wood
Mary Overend
💍 1913/3824

Bachelor
Spinster

Dairyman

26
27

Wellington
Wellington

8 years
27 years

Residence of Mary Overend, 87 Waipapa Road, Karori

13/3347

10 May 1913

Rev. L. Barr

No	368
Date of Notice	10 May 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Wood	Mary Overend
	💍 1913/3824
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dairyman
Age	26	27
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	8 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mary Overend, 87 Waipapa Road, Karori
Folio	13/3347
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 May 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. L. Barr

369

10 May 1913

Frank Horsley Blairmand
Iris Kathleen McCarthy

Frank Horsley Stairmand
Iris Kathleen McCarthy
💍 1913/3698

Bachelor
Spinster

Plumber

25
19

Wellington
Wellington

15 years
4 years

Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington

13/3320

Thomas Benner McCarthy, father

10 May 1913

Rev. G. Knowles Smith

No	369
Date of Notice	10 May 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Horsley Blairmand	Iris Kathleen McCarthy
BDM Match (96%)	Frank Horsley Stairmand	Iris Kathleen McCarthy
	💍 1913/3698
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plumber
Age	25	19
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	15 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington
Folio	13/3320
Consent	Thomas Benner McCarthy, father
Date of Certificate	10 May 1913
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Knowles Smith

370

10 May 1913

Charles Hayes Chamberlain
Wilhelmina Willcox

Charles Hoyes Chamberlain
Wilhelmina Willox
💍 1913/468

Bachelor
Spinster

Builder

33
24

Wellington
Wellington

4 days
6 weeks

Registrar's Office, Wellington

13/2223

10 May 1913

Registrar

No	370
Date of Notice	10 May 1913
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Hayes Chamberlain	Wilhelmina Willcox
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Hoyes Chamberlain	Wilhelmina Willox
	💍 1913/468
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Builder
Age	33	24
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Wellington
Length of Residence	4 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Wellington
Folio	13/2223
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 May 1913
Officiating Minister	Registrar

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).